The photograph

How many have you seen? Millions and even more constantly
How many of them can you remember?
1826 was the year of the 1st photograph is an 8 hour exposure made with a pin-hole camera. Only 4 years later was the 1st photograph with people in. This photograph is made with a process called Daguerreotype using a polished metal plate and a lens, also to process these photographs mercury is used making this a hazardous technique.
In 1835 a negative/positive approach to photography was developed, the famous ‘Latticed Window’ is an example of this. A process like this gives the means of mass production in coping multiples of the positive. This process raised the debate of weather photography can be art when it is not an original.
Photography is becoming a fast and cheap accessible. It is an accurate ‘representation of reality’; making art becomes an interpretation not to represent reality (artistic licence).
What Do Photographs Do?
Record, inform, entertain, influence.
Photographs are powerful as it can be different from what we see through our eyes from what the lens captures. August Sander’s photograph ‘Young Soldier’ (1945) shows contrast between the humanity of the face and army uniform, the face and expression makes this relatable.
What is a Photograph?
Visual image, frozen in time, conveys information, two dimensional, static, subject selected by photographer, composed. An objective photograph is unbiased and representation.
What is the difference between film/TV and photography?
Photographs are still, viewed as long as the audience wanted. Film or TV must have a beginning middle and end.
The Decisive moment is a photography captured at the most important split second.
Iconic Images
The widespread exposure to a mass audience leads to familiarity and iconic status. Most well known could easily religious. Che Guevara – Alberto Korda, This image became a symbol of rebellion and free going, this image has lost its original anchor over time. Marilyn Diptych – Warhol, This image is a combination of prints all with light imperfections taken from the original photograph in 1953. Another iconic image is on abbey road – Beatles LP making it a famous crossing taken by Ian Macmillan in 1969. One of the best selling posters is ‘Athena tennis girl’ by Martin Elliot, it is a negative representation of women. The famous photograph of ‘Dorothea Lange migrant worker, during the great depression’ this is a metaphor of agony of motherhood in poverty.
Historical Opinion
There was an apparent closeness to reality which was accurate, realistic and truthful. Photography is a power for social change, social documentary and propaganda.
Contemporary Opinion
Things have changed, there is now an awareness of the potential for manipulation, technology trickery, deliberate fakery and a dishonest and untrustworthy manipulation.
Who is the photographer? Who is more trustworthy as a photographer, the paparazzi, journalists or an amateur? When money is involved it gives the photographer a commercial interest.
What is the truth? In ‘Lunch on 69th Floor’ from 1932 there is a strong sense of manipulation with the photograph when studying the feet of the workers. Some truths are more acceptable than others, where the meaning of things can change.
How do we know what things mean? We can use what we know to interpret photographs and their meaning. We read the form (what), the context (where) and the genre. A genre could be domestic, portrait, commercial or media. Even when you don’t know the terminology your thought processes pick up on these things.
The meaning of a photograph is not fixed.
The context is crucial, if it changes so does the meaning.
The text can lend significance, even when photographers have other intentions.
The reality is not captured it is transformed and mediated.