Research: Victor Burgin

In the chapter Looking at Photographs, Victor Burgin starts off by saying that we see photographs nearly everywhere we go, but we aren't really aware of that fact. He argues that photography doesn't get as much recognition as it probably should. Comparing photographs to films or books he says that they 'are not seen by deliberate choice, they have no special time or space allotted to them[...]', whereas films are seen as 'the result of a voluntary act which quite clearly entails an expenditure of time and/or money.'

This also includes, that we take photographs for granted and thus don't recognise their importance and the cultural meaning that they carry.

'Work in semiotics showed that there is no language of photography, no single signifying system.. There is rather a heterogeneous complex of codes upon which photography may draw.' Thus Burgin shows that there is not a single way of reading a photograph as there is for watching a film or reading a book. 

It is also interesting to mention that 'we rarely see a photograph in use, which does not have a caption or a title, it is more usual to encounter photographs attached to long texts, or with copy superimposed over them'. (But why is this so? Do photographers feel the need to explain there photographs so they don't get interpreted wrongly? )

Furthermore he takes into account the gaze when looking at a photograph saying that 'The signifying system of photography, like that of  classical painting, at once depicts a scene and the gaze of the spectator, an object and a viewing subject. 

So when looking at the picture one doesn't only have to take into account the object that it represented on the photograph but also the gaze of the person that looks at this photograph, it's a double-way mechanism. 

Additionally, it is particularly interesting that Burgin draws onto the 'mirror-stage' of an infant to describe the process of decoding a photograph. 

This theory and the theory of the gaze in relation to photography are very important to consider when thinking about the role that individuals' identities play in the decoding of a picture. 

Finally, Victor Burgin draws on 'good' composition and says that schools know how to teach what it is but they never teach their students 'why it is' and thus he concludes by saying that good composition is a necessary device in a photograph to keep the eye of the viewer within the frame.

Burgin's text is very intense, not easy to read and contains a lot of theory. And although I may not have understood every single word of this reading I nevertheless have to say that it has been essential to me, because it has helped me realise how complex a photograph is, and that for my project it won't be enough to just go out and take some random shots, I really have to think about composition and about the gaze of those that will look at my photographs afterwards, in their very own way. 

Reading: 
Thinking Photography, Chapter 6: Looking at Photographs - Victor Burgin

Research: David Campany

As we are slowly getting closer to Spring break it is time to seriously think about my project and undertake some research.

At this stage, I still don't really have a clue what I want to do my project about. I have a million ideas going from homosexuality and race, society's view of beauty, the 100 different faces of one person to 'the hidden everyday' or different perspectives.

So basically, there is a pretty big mess in my head right now, because I've got all of these ideas but can't really decide for one.

However, as I was looking through the additional reading on study direct, I found David Campany's article 'Almost the Same Thing: Some Thoughts on the Photographer as Collector'.

I feel like this reading is particularly interesting for me, because I was thinking about working with 'The Everyday' for my project, and that's one of the main topics that Campany also focuses on in his text.

To begin with, Campany analyses photographic modernism and pays special attention to the connection between book and photography. This then leads to what he calls 'straight photography'. The author argues that 'the straight photograph is often thought of as uncomposed and artless, a ''degree zero'' of composition, which in some senses it is.' Thus, the straight image doesn't help reading the picture. But Campany also says that this fact that the straight photograph 'refuses to lead the eye', makes it 'resistant' and 'demanding' and thus even more interesting to look at.

Campany writes that 'our gaze is restless, and we don't know quite what to do'. And this is what makes the straight images so special in its simplicity. Looking at a photograph we look out for composition, form and order, but what if we can't find anything alike? If we're left with an ordinary portrait or a straight image of a trivial object it confuses us and at the same time makes us think about it and about the world around us, because it is not at all what we expected from photography.

The author then goes on and explains how these straight photographs are given meaning through 'the structure and orchestration of the group.' I feel like this is a particularly interesting theory, because our final photography project needs to include a group of 6-8 images and thus it would be interesting to explore in the project how the group gives every picture a special meaning.

Additionally, David Campany refers to Robert Frank and his snapshots of everyday situations.

Snapshots are particularly interesting because although they only caption a single instant, when looking at the picture it still feels like there is movement and excitement in it.

'The moment of exposure is privileged as an ecstatic or traumatic guarantee the 'nowness' of the everyday and its photographic observation.' The vocabulary that Campany uses to describe this phenomenon of the snapshot is very interesting, especially the term 'nowness' seems to have a very strong impact, because it describes what the snapshot literally is: that which is happening NOW at the moment of taking the picture, no posing, no being aware of the camera, just the now and here.

For me, especially this last idea of the snapshot is very interesting, because it again gives me new ideas and a whole new way of looking at things.

I was thinking about doing my project maybe about everyday objects that we use or see every day but never really become aware of them. To show the importance and the dominant role that these objects have in our life, I wanted to work with a low depth of field and thus show the objects in much more detail and give the viewer the possibility to look at the given object differently.

But as I have now read David Campany's article, I think that working with snapshots of everyday scenes and actions could also be an interesting idea.

Reading: 
Almost the Same Thing: Thoughts on the Photographer as collector', David Campany

Portraits: 'Other each other'

After talking about 'Otherness' and 'the Gaze' we had to go out in pairs and take portraits of each other. The focus of this exercise was on the fact that we were supposed 'to other' each other in these portraits. So Connor and me thought about how we could 'other' each other in our pictures and as we were reflecting on the meaning of 'the other' we thought it might be useful to focus on talents, character traits or interests that we have and that makes us different from other people. 

As Connor is studying Music, he is talented in playing all kinds of different instruments, especially the piano, so I tried to capture his talent from different perspectives, either standing behind him or next to the piano so that one can actually see his face as well. 

I think that the second picture is particularly interesting, because his facial expression shows how passionate Connor is about his music and this again distinguishes him from other people. 

I really like this one, because one could maybe see it as kind of controversial. 

Connor is a christian and he takes his religion very serious. Which again makes him different from me for example, because I am not at all a religious person. 

When Connor tried 'to other' me, things began to get kind of tricky. The things that make me different, are things that you can not actually see in a portrait. I am half-deaf, I speak 5 languages and I love writing, but it is kind of difficult to visually show one of these things.

So Connor started to just randomly take pictures of me as we walked around campus and as we came back he realized that my outfit kind of ‘othered’ me.

I was wearing these black and white trousers with patterns on them and Connor was totally right when he said that they made me different and that my style was kind of exceptional. I’m sure people might gaze at me and think ‘Ew, what’s wrong with her trousers?’, ‘My parents wouldn’t let me go out like this’. But at the same time, I gaze at the camera and think ‘I don’t care what you think, this outfit is awesome!’

Contact Sheet

Gender, Gaze, Otherness and Photography

In Stuart Hall's text The spectacle of the Other, the author analyses otherness, difference and stereotypes, especially in relation to race.

But before undertaking further analysis of Hall's theory, I just quickly want to explain what we understand under 'Otherness'.

In general, otherness is often referred to as 'the quality of being different or unusual'. (Merriam-Webster). So basically, a synonym for otherness could be difference.

The idea of difference leads us back to Hall, who argues in his text that people that are different from the majority often get exposed to, what he calls, 'a binary form of representation', meaning that they get exposed to extremes, such as good/bad, black/white, male/female...

Additionally, Hall also says that difference has a binary character, meaning that it can be good and bad at the same time. Good, because it is necessary to build meaning, become aware of oneself, develop an identity... But it can also be dangerous, because it can produce hostility towards 'the Other', as for instance racism.

Hall refers to Mikhail Bakhtin wo said that 'we need difference because we can only construct meaning through a dialogue with 'the Other''.

Furthermore, Hall also talks about stereotypes in relation to race saying that 'there is the polarized opposition between racial 'purity' on the one hand, and the 'pollution' which comes from intermarriage, racial hybridity and interbreeding.' So basically, what he says, is that there are certain things that we associate white people with and other things that we associate black people with. It is remarkable though that he uses the word ‘pollution’ to refer to people with a black skin color, showing that in these times black people were often associated with negative connotations, which made them different and ‘other’ compared to white people.

Another thing that we looked at today is the gaze, meaning the way how people look at a picture. 

In this context, it could be interesting to refer to feminism and Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze, referring to the way how films and adverts featuring women are often structured around a male audience. 

But the gaze doesn't necessarily have to be male, it is much more complex than that, therefore it might help to refer to Jonathan Schroeder who argued that 'to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze'.

'Gazing at' someone implies 'bothering' that someone. When we look at someone in a picture we judge them, according to our own experience, and by doing so, we reveal a lot about ourselves, our interest and taste. This might sound really confusing, but in his Distinction, Bourdieu simplified this phenomenon in few words by saying that 'Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier'.

Lee Miller: 

Born in 1907, Lee Miller worked as a fashion model, before she began her career as photographer. In 1929 she travelled to Paris to become surrealist artist Man Ray’s assistant and muse, until 1932. After that she opened her own studio in New York, until she married an Egyptian man and moved to Cairo, Egypt with him for a couple of years.

It is particularly interesting that, during World War II she worked as only female combat photographer in Europe and thus her most important pieces of work include a lot of war photographs.

The fire masks that the women are wearing, show how Lee Miller constantly tried to include surrealist elements into her pictures. 

Although this picture might not seem extraordinary at first, one has to notice that the woman in the bathtub is Lee Miller and the bathtub is in Munich and used to be Hitler's bathtub, so once you have these background information about the set, your gaze totally changes, and you start othering Miller.

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus, born in 1923 is probably one of the most important female photographers of the 20^th century. She was often described as ‘a photographer of freaks’, due to the fact that she mainly concentrated on "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality

seems ugly or surreal."

She thought that her camera could reveal the truth about people and shamelessly show their flaws, therefore her pictures were often ’shocking in their purity’.

Again all three pictures have a very strong gaze, you look at them and immediately start judging the people. 'That man looks so strange!' 'Why does he have fake nails and nail polish?', 'Oh, he's smoking'.

Same with the little boy, 'Why does he have grenades in his hands?', 'Who are his parents? I would never let my kids play with a toy that looks like a grenade'.

But what we maybe not notice at first is that each of these people looking into the camera also has a gaze. Think about what they may think about us, the viewers. 

Nancy 'Nan' Golden

Nancy ‘Nan’ Goldin is an American photographer, born in 1953, whose work focuses on topics such as gender domesticity, love and sexuality

She is particularly famous for ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ a 45 minute long slideshow featuring pictures that show drag queens, drug abuse, sex, domestic violence, etc…

Nan Goldin didn’t at all hold back in her work, therefore her pictures are very revealing, intimate and personal, for instance her picture ‘Nan one month after being battered’ shows Nan’s face covered in bruises because of her violent boyfriend.

Moreover, she had a special interest in drag queens and said that her desire ‘was to show them as a third gender, as another sexual option, a gender option.‘   

This last one isn't part of Goldin's slide show, so it doesn't really fit with the other two, but I think that it is nevertheless a good example to again refer to the gaze and at the same time show how Nan Goldin crossed all boundaries and even photographed herself after being battered by her boyfriend.

Sarah Maple

Born in 1985, Sarah Maple is probably one of the youngest photographers that focus on the representation of otherness.

She is largely influenced by her multicultural background (Iranian-muslim mother; british-christian father) and her commitment to feminism. This is also noticeable in her work, in which she mainly focuses on topics such as culture, religion, sexuality and feminity.

By touching on these, often controversial themes, she uses her work to fight against social pressure and stereotypes.

Reading: 

The Spectacle of the Other - Stuart Hall

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - Laura Mulvey

Visual Culture - Jonathan Schroeder

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste - Pierre Bourdieu

                                                                                                         

L