VISA 2061 WINTER 2011 Week 2

Photographic seeing Roland Barthes

John Berger

Photographic qualities

Jem Southam photographing at Whale Chine, Isle of Wight

Isabelle Hayeur. Montreal based photographer/filmmaker-her publicity pic

Roland Barthes 1915-1980 (French literary critic )

published Camera Lucida in1980

The book investigates the effects of photography on the spectator. (not the photographer.)

Book is based on a contemplation of a photograph of his mother (dead at the time.)

Looks at the lasting emotional effect of certain photographs and asks why!

Camera Lucida develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum:

“My mother was five at the time (1898), her brother was seven. He was leaning against the bridge railing...she, shorter than he, was standing a little back, facing the camera...she was holding one finger in the other hand as children often do, in an awkward gesture. The brother and sister had posed, side by side, alone, under the palms of the Winter Garden...I studied the little girl and at last rediscovered my mother.”

Barthes emphasizes the referential aspects of the photograph, i.e., that photographs are directly linked to reality.

He opposes the idea that there is no single meaning for the photograph, but instead a sort of poststructural emergent meaning, based on signs within contexts.

Barthes sees Death implicit in each photograph. A photograph moves you back through time. You always have the past with you.

Each photo documents a 1/60, 1/ 125 of a second that existed. Death is the final moment of a life and the last possible photograph.

At the same time, Barthes sees the photograph as a kind of resurrection. It continues after the person is gone. It has a life of its own, in scrapbooks, on walls, in cardboard boxes, as long as the paper exists. Barthes likes the fact that what he sees has existed in front of the lens. The image becomes a magic relic, as though it is part of his mother.

The studium The cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph What excites the viewer because of cultural background, interest, curiosity The studium is a term for the interest which we show in a photograph, the desire to study and understand what the meanings are in a photograph, to explore the relationship between the meanings and our own subjectivities.

The punctum The punctum is more about the sudden recognition of meaning, the unexpected, it "shoots out of [the photograph] like an arrow and pierces me

Barthes reminds us that a photograph frames. That it contains. That it immortalizes a moment that past already in the taking. What is beyond the frame? A gesture- a death- a moment.

There is always something occurring beyond the frame of the still image. We are left out, we are constantly reminded that time passes.

This photographic quality is poignant and powerful

Barthes: "A photograph's punctum is that accident [of photographic detail] which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me), ...for punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little hole---and also a caste of the dice" (27; slightly rearranged).

"I now know that there exists another punctum (another 'stigmatum') than the 'detail.' This new punctum, which is no longer of form but of intensity, is Time, the lacerating emphasis of the noeme ('that-has-been'), its pure representation" (96).

"But more insidious, more penetrating than likeness: the Photograph sometimes makes appear what we never see in a real face (or in a face reflected in a mirror): a genetic feature, the fragment of oneself or of a relative which comes from some ancestor" Barthes

John Berger

John Berger was born in London in 1926. Novelist and creator of the BBC series, “Ways of Seeing”, 1972 (also a book.) Recognized as an important turning point that encouraged broader interpretations of art from a non western and feminist perspectives.

Episode 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfB-pUm3eI

Episode 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmgGT3th_oI&feature=related

JOHN BERGER Ways of Seeing

The single constitutive choice of a photographer differs from the continuous and more random choices of someone who is looking. Every photographer knows that a photograph simplifies...A photograph quotes from appearances, but, in quoting, simplifies them. (Berger 1982:119)

"Photography, because it stops the flow of life, is always flirting with death."

The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget. -John Berger, "About Looking" (1980)

All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this -as in other ways- they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it. -John Berger, "Keeping a Rendezvous (Vintage International)"? (1992)

Qualities of photographic seeing.

Camera

Operator

Subject

Audience

Qualities of photographic seeing.

Camera

Operator

Subject

Audience

Camera The camera is a technical object that records through mechanical functions. It is emotionless - the camera does not think or make any judgments, it merely reproduces. It is a tool that will instantly capture a moment and freeze it, preserving detail exactly as it appears

Operator Operator constructs meaning through aesthetic and technical choice.

Each operator is influenced by their culture, life experience and social context. Reflect our beliefs, values and prejudices. We frame and create photographs that reflect and communicate our views on our audience.

The main elements of the image as decided by the photographer, become the elements which the viewer takes notice of, and pays attention to.

“I have decided that seeing this is worth recording.”

“What it shows invokes what is not shown.”

“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget…. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it”

“What makes photography a strange invention - with unforeseeable consequences - is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” - John Berger

Some photographs are transparent. The viewer is drawn through the surface into the illusion of the image

James Welling, Glass House, 2006-09

James Welling 'In Search of...', 1981, gelatin silver print, framed 67.3 x 56.5 cm

Some photographs are opaque. The viewer is stopped by the picture plane.

Extrusive time: the movement occurring in front of the camera, or movement of the camera itself, accumulating on the film, producing a blur.

Francesca Woodman, From Angel Series, Rome, 1977-1978.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Head #23, 2000 [from "Heads"]

Frozen time: an exposure of short duration cutting across the grain of time, generating a new moment.

Still time: the content is at rest and the time is still.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cinerama Dome, Hollywood, 1993

Exposure Modes!

http://www.photocourse.com/itext/modedial/!

Shutter priority!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig039V_or-U&feature=channel!

How a light meter works!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E11NwLdZaQw&feature=channel!

Manual Mode!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-YJn81CJgQ&feature=related!

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Focus is crucial.

Autofocus makes it seem simple.

But beware!

Check your camera. Do you know how to manual focus? Can you switch between manual and autofocus

You need to understand 1. What focus mode are you using 2. Where is your point of focus 3. What is your zone of focus

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Julie Blackmon!

http://www.edelmangallery.com/blackmon_domestic.htm!

Janieta Eyre!

http://www.janietaeyre.com/index2.htm!

Michiko Kon "Griffes de poule et tuxedo # # (1996 ) !

Michiko Kon "

Octopus and Melon, 1989!20 x 24 inches!