BA Phot
1st Draft (1,273) - 2nd Draft - 3rd Draft - References
[18May20] This is page 2 of the Asg.4 essay and starts with the first complete draft, assembled from the various jottings on page 1.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
Write an essay of 1,000 words on an image of your choice.
The image can be anything you like, from a famous art photograph to a family snapshot, but please make sure that your chosen image has scope for you to make a rigorous and critical analysis.
• If you choose a well-known photograph, take time to research its context – the intentions of the photographer, why it was taken, whether it’s part of a series, etc. Add all this information into your essay to enable you to draw a conclusion from your own interpretation of the facts.
• If you choose to use a found photograph, a picture from your own collection, or perhaps one from an old family archive, use it as an opportunity to find out something new. Avoid telling us about that particular holiday or memory – look directly to the photograph for the information. It may be interesting to compare and contrast your memory with the information you’re now seeing anew from ‘reading’ the picture so intensely.It’s not enough to write an entirely descriptive or historical account of your chosen image. You must use the facts as a means to draw your own conclusions about what the picture means to you. You may wish to apply what you’ve learned in Part Four regarding translation, interpretation, connotation, signs, punctum, etc., but be sure you get the definitions correct.
Follow thought associations and other images that relate to the discussion, directly or indirectly. Look at the broader context of the image and its background and specific narrative as well as your personal interpretation of it and what thoughts it triggers for you. Follow these associations in a thoughtful and formal way. Allow yourself to enjoy the process!
There are many good examples of writing about single images (e.g. Sophie Howarth’s Singular Images), which you may find helpful to read before attempting your own. Take note of the level of critical analysis and aim for a similar approach in your own writing. You may write about personal connections but ensure you express yourself in a formally analytical and reflective manner. OCA, Photography 2: Context & Narrative p.105
101 to be lost
The assignment brief opens with the phrase 'A picture is worth a thousand words' and (without any further reference to it) asks for an essay on a single picture, deploying 'rigorous and critical analysis' (Boothroyd, 2017, p.92).
There are numerous published approaches to analysing photographs. Combining Barrett's (2000), Shore (2007) and Szarkowski (1978 and 2007) with Barthes and Derrida, any analytical method should consider up to five main aspects of a photograph's trajectory from camera to publication and consumption: the subject, the photographer's technical choices and personal attitudes, the display environment and the viewer's circumstances.
The headline phrase appears to be relatively recent, being first used at the beginning of 20th century in several speeches and advertisements in the US (Martin, 2020). It has come to mean that a single image might represent what would otherwise take many words to explain, as with instructions for self-assembly furniture, but it is also apparent that images can replace or reinforce or can undermine or even negate any number of spoken and written words. For example, in March, Alex Salmond was 'cleared of sexual assault allegations made by nine women after a trial at Edinburgh High Court' (Hutcheon, 2020), but, nevertheless, is widely regarded and frequently depicted as failing to respect colleagues' rights, and taking advantage of his position of authority. The Times used a thirteen-year-old photograph (fig. B1) when reporting the trial (Massie, 2020).
Here, the denoted contents are a man trying to embrace a reluctant woman, the press photographers in the background suggest that there is celebrity or public interest involved. A politically informed reader might not need the anchoring text (Barthes, 1967) identifying the subjects. The display environment (Barthes' channel of transmission) is significant in this case: a national newspaper is using the image to undermine Salmond's position and diminish his court victory.
361 266 words
Some images need an explanation before they can be appreciated and understood, a notable example being Richard Drew's Falling Man (fig. C1) which at first might appear to be an abstract, then the body is noticed and the photograph becomes sinister, but when the title subtly reveals, by means of the date, that this was one of nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack, the full horror of this man's predicament and choices becomes apparent. The significant analytical aspect here is the viewer whose reaction to the context (when the subject is revealed) far outweighs any aesthetic or technical considerations. Those reactions would probably fall into one of several broad categories depending on the viewers political (and perhaps religious) views, but nevertheless constitute what Barthes referred to as punctum, defined by Bate (2007) as the 'aspect of the image that affects them in a particular and personal way').
The image chosen as the central subject of this essay is more complex and nuanced than the examples considered so far.
148 words
In Brandt's Northumbrian coal miner eating his evening meal, 1937 (fig. A1), the denoted contents comprise an unwashed middle-aged man eating a meal at a table, watched by a woman of similar age who is not eating. The room decoration is not contemporary. The image's title establishes the period, the event and the setting and is another example of the clarification a title can provide, Barthes 'anchoring'.
Superficially, this might be considered a documentary image, a genre that Brandt ostensibly built his reputation on in the books The English at Home (1936) and A Night in London (1938), following which he gradually became a regular contributor to British magazines such as Picture Post. While little documentation has been found on this particular image or more generally about his visits to the North of England in the late 1930s, Brandt's manipulative and sometimes performative approach to seemingly documentary images is frequently described.
Hacking (2012, p.61) writes that 'some of the photographs taken by Brandt for his first book … feature Rolf, Eva [Brandt's brother and his wife], Ester [Brandt's wife] and other émigré family and friends posing as characters in purportedly unmediated scenes of British social life' and Delany (2004, p.10) that 'his subjects had to be 'in character', placed on a stage with the necessary props'.
It has not been suggested that the Northumbrian coal miner or the coal-searcher (fig. D1) were portrayed by actors, but rather that Brandt might have taken a directorial approach to the portrait subjects and settings.
Turning to the connoted aspects of Northumbrian coal miner, these are by definition subjective and personal to the viewer. Perhaps the most striking component (the punctum of the image in Barthes' terms) is the dirt on the subject's face, body and clothing which, we suspect from the title to be coal dust: it seems strange to eat a meal without washing, however, pit-head baths were only introduced widely, starting in the 1930s (Wright and Herrera, 2017) and Orwell wrote that 'a majority of miners prefer to eat their meal first and wash afterwards' (Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, quoted in Delany, p. 134). Given my experience and political inclinations (I grew up near the South Wales coalfields and the site of the 1966 Aberfan disaster and tend to side with workers rather than employers), I interpret the image as an illustration of the oppressive conditions imposed on the working class in post-Depression Britain, but Brandt, perhaps partly as a result of his privileged background, seems to have lacked social concerns in this context and 'never intended them … for political propaganda' (Brand, quoted in Hacking, p.61) and did not, in any case, publish the images for more than a decade (MoMA, 2003, p.19).
There are other features of the photograph that merit a mention: the fact that the female subject is not eating; what appears to be a satchel hanging on the rear wall; and the picture on that wall, partially obscured but showing a face, seemingly peering around the drying clothes. It is possible, even inevitable that the viewer will try to interpret such features in their own way, but given Brandt's practice of arranging the scenery and choreographing the subjects, no sensible conclusion can be reached on their implications. This is a manifestation of polysemy, a Barthian concept that Salkeld (2018, p.56) defines as a photograph's 'capacity for generating multiple meanings'.
I had naively accepted Brandt's early British work as representational and was disappointed to learn in research for this essay that many images were staged. While this might undermine Brandt's perceived integrity as a photographer, my respect for the aesthetic quality of his work, especially the later portraits and nudes remains intact. However manipulated Northumbrian miner … was in the details, it is still a notable example of the portrayal of workers' conditions at that time. Ultimately, I have always supposed that many photographers manipulate their subjects, for example, I cannot see how some of Cartier-Bresson (fig. E1) and Ronis' (fig. E2) work can be anything other than contrived. This being the case, it is entirely reasonable for Brandt to have done so.
266 + 148 + 687 = 1,101
273 to be lost
The assignment brief opens with the phrase 'A picture is worth a thousand words' and (without any further reference to it) asks for an essay on a single picture, deploying 'rigorous and critical analysis' (Boothroyd, 2017, p.92).
There are numerous published approaches to analysing photographs. Combining Barrett's (2000), Shore (2007) and Szarkowski (1978 and 2007) with Barthes and Derrida, any analytical method should consider up to five main aspects of a photograph's trajectory from camera to publication and consumption: the subject, the photographer's technical choices and personal attitudes, the display environment and the viewer's circumstances.
The headline phrase appears to be relatively recent, being first used at the beginning of 20th century in several speeches and advertisements in the US (Martin, 2020). It has come to mean that a single image might represent what would otherwise take many words to explain, as with instructions for self-assembly furniture, but it is also apparent that images can replace or reinforce or can undermine or even negate any number of spoken and written words. For example, in March, Alex Salmond was 'cleared of sexual assault allegations made by nine women after a trial at Edinburgh High Court' (Hutcheon, 2020), but, nevertheless, is widely regarded and frequently depicted as failing to respect colleagues' rights, and taking advantage of his position of authority. The Times used a thirteen-year-old photograph (fig. B1) when reporting the trial (Massie, 2020).
Here, the denoted contents are a man trying to embrace a reluctant woman, the press photographers in the background suggest that there is celebrity or public interest involved. A politically informed reader might not need the anchoring text (Barthes, 1967) identifying the subjects. The display environment (Barthes' channel of transmission) is significant in this case: a national newspaper is using the image to undermine Salmond's position and diminish his court victory.
361 266 words
Some images need an explanation before they can be appreciated and understood, a notable example being Richard Drew's Falling Man (fig. C1) which at first might appear to be an abstract, then the body is noticed and the photograph becomes sinister, but when the title subtly reveals, by means of the date, that this was one of nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack, the full horror of this man's predicament and choices becomes apparent. The significant analytical aspect here is the viewer whose reaction to the context (when the subject is revealed) far outweighs any aesthetic or technical considerations. Those reactions would probably fall into one of several broad categories depending on the viewers political (and perhaps religious) views, but nevertheless constitute what Barthes referred to as punctum, defined by Bate (2007) as the 'aspect of the image that affects them in a particular and personal way').
The image chosen as the central subject of this essay is more complex and nuanced than the examples considered so far.
148 words
In Brandt's Northumbrian coal miner eating his evening meal, 1937 (fig. A1), the denoted contents comprise an unwashed middle-aged man eating a meal at a table, watched by a woman of similar age who is not eating. The room decoration is not contemporary. The image's title establishes the period, the event and the setting and is another example of the clarification a title can provide, Barthes 'anchoring'.
Superficially, this might be considered a documentary image, a genre that Brandt ostensibly built his reputation on in the books The English at Home (1936) and A Night in London (1938), following which he gradually became a regular contributor to British magazines such as Picture Post. While little documentation has been found on this particular image or more generally about his visits to the North of England in the late 1930s, Brandt's manipulative and sometimes performative approach to seemingly documentary images is frequently described.
Hacking (2012, p.61) writes that 'some of the photographs taken by Brandt for his first book … feature Rolf, Eva [Brandt's brother and his wife], Ester [Brandt's wife] and other émigré family and friends posing as characters in purportedly unmediated scenes of British social life' and Delany (2004, p.10) that 'his subjects had to be 'in character', placed on a stage with the necessary props'.
It has not been suggested that the Northumbrian coal miner or the coal-searcher (fig. D1) were portrayed by actors, but rather that Brandt might have taken a directorial approach to the portrait subjects and settings.
Turning to the connoted aspects of Northumbrian coal miner, these are by definition subjective and personal to the viewer. Perhaps the most striking component (the punctum of the image in Barthes' terms) is the dirt on the subject's face, body and clothing which, we suspect from the title to be coal dust: it seems strange to eat a meal without washing, however, pit-head baths were only introduced widely, starting in the 1930s (Wright and Herrera, 2017) and Orwell wrote that 'a majority of miners prefer to eat their meal first and wash afterwards' (Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, quoted in Delany, p. 134). Given my experience and political inclinations (I grew up near the South Wales coalfields and the site of the 1966 Aberfan disaster and tend to side with workers rather than employers), I interpret the image as an illustration of the oppressive conditions imposed on the working class in post-Depression Britain, but Brandt, perhaps partly as a result of his privileged background, seems to have lacked social concerns in this context and 'never intended them … for political propaganda' (Brand, quoted in Hacking, p.61) and did not, in any case, publish the images for more than a decade (MoMA, 2003, p.19).
There are other features of the photograph that merit a mention: the fact that the female subject is not eating; what appears to be a satchel hanging on the rear wall; and the picture on that wall, partially obscured but showing a face, seemingly peering around the drying clothes. It is possible, even inevitable that the viewer will try to interpret such features in their own way, but given Brandt's practice of arranging the scenery and choreographing the subjects, no sensible conclusion can be reached on their implications. This is a manifestation of polysemy, a Barthian concept that Salkeld (2018, p.56) defines as a photograph's 'capacity for generating multiple meanings'.
I had naively accepted Brandt's early British work as representational and was disappointed to learn in research for this essay that many images were staged. While this might undermine Brandt's perceived integrity as a photographer, my respect for the aesthetic quality of his work, especially the later portraits and nudes remains intact. However manipulated this image was in the details, it is still a notable example of the portrayal of workers' conditions at that time. Ultimately, I have always supposed that many photographers manipulate their subjects, for example, I cannot see how some of Cartier-Bresson (fig. E1) and Ronis' (fig. E2) work can be anything other than contrived. This being the case, it is entirely reasonable for Brandt to have done so.
764 687 words
[1,273 total words]
266 + 148 + 687 = 1,101
The assignment brief opens with the phrase 'A picture is worth a thousand words' and (without any further reference to it) asks for an essay on a single picture, deploying 'rigorous and critical analysis' (Boothroyd, 2017, p.92).
There are numerous published approaches to analysing photographs: Barrett's (2000) suggestion of six categories provides a useful starting point and Shore (2007) and Szarkowski (1978 and 2007) have both contributed on the matter. Part 4 of Context and Narrative concentrates on the work of Barthes and other exponents of semiotics such a Derrida. Combining these, any analytical method should consider up to five main aspects of a photograph's trajectory from camera to publication and consumption: the subject, the photographer's technical choices and personal attitudes, the display environment and the viewer's circumstances.
Regarding the headline phrase, Marlowe mentions '1000 ships' in 1604 (Ratcliffe, 2016) but this appears to be relatively recent, being first used at the beginning of 20th century in several speeches and advertisements in the US (Martin, 2020).
It has come to mean that a single image might represent what would otherwise take many words to explain, as is the case with instructions for self-assembly furniture, but it is also apparent that images can replace or reinforce or can undermine or even negate any number of spoken and written words. A recent example is the case of Alex Salmond, who in March this year was 'cleared of sexual assault allegations made by nine women after a trial at Edinburgh High Court' (Hutcheon, 2020), but, nevertheless, is widely regarded and frequently depicted as failing to respect colleagues' rights, and taking advantage of his position of authority, as in fig. B1, a thirteen-year-old photograph used in The Times when reporting the trial (Massie, 2020).
Here, the denoted contents are a man trying to embrace a reluctant woman, the press photographers in the background suggest that there is celebrity or public interest involved. A politically informed reader might not need the anchoring text (Barthes, 1967) identifying the subjects. The display environment (Barthes' channel of transmission) is significant in this case: a national newspaper is using the image to undermine Salmond's position and diminish his court victory.
Some images need an explanation before they can be appreciated and understood, a notable example being Richard Drew's Falling Man (fig. C1) which at first might appear to be an abstract, then the body is noticed and the photograph becomes sinister, but when the title subtly reveals, by means of the date, that this was one of nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack, the full horror of this man's predicament and choices becomes apparent. The significant analytical aspect here is the viewer whose reaction to the context (when the subject is revealed) far outweighs any aesthetic or technical considerations. Those reactions would probably fall into one of several broad categories depending on the viewers political (and perhaps religious) views, but nevertheless constitute what Barthes referred to as punctum, defined by Bate (2007) as the 'aspect of the image that affects them in a particular and personal way').
The image chosen as the central subject of this essay is more complex and nuanced than the examples considered so far.
In Brandt's Northumbrian coal miner eating his evening meal, 1937 (fig. A1), the denoted contents comprise an unwashed middle-aged man eating a meal at a table, watched by a woman of similar age who is not eating. The room decoration is not contemporary. The image's title establishes the period, the event and the setting and is another example of the clarification a title can provide, Barthes 'anchoring'.
Superficially, this might be considered a documentary image, a genre that Brandt ostensibly built his reputation on in the books The English at Home (1936) and A Night in London (1938), following which he gradually became a regular contributor to British magazines such as Picture Post. While little documentation has been found on this particular image or more generally about his visits to the North of England in the late 1930s, Brandt's manipulative and sometimes performative approach to seemingly documentary images is frequently described.
Hacking (2012, p.61) writes that 'some of the photographs taken by Brandt for his first book … feature Rolf, Eva [Brandt's brother and his wife], Ester [Brandt's wife] and other émigré family and friends posing as characters in purportedly unmediated scenes of British social life' and Delany (2004, p.10) that 'his subjects had to be 'in character', placed on a stage with the necessary props'.
It has not been suggested that the Northumbrian coal miner or the coal-searcher (fig. D1) were portrayed by actors, but rather that Brandt might have taken a directorial approach to the portrait subjects and settings.
Turning to the connoted aspects of Northumbrian coal miner, these are by definition subjective and personal to the viewer so the context to be taken into account here is that I grew up near the South Wales coalfields and the site of the 1966 Aberfan disaster (I was 12 at that time) and have strong memories of the 1984-5 miners' strike (coincidentally, I worked for several years in the Cardiff bank subsidiary which administered (or mishandled) the trust fund for Aberfan victims and was forced to pay face-saving compensation). Perhaps the most striking component (the punctum of the image in Barthes' terms) is the dirt on the subject's face, body and clothing which, we suspect from the title to be coal dust: it seems strange to eat a meal without washing, especially when so dirty, however, pit-head baths were only introduced widely, starting in the 1930s (Wright and Herrera, 2017) and Orwell wrote that 'a majority of miners prefer to eat their meal first and wash afterwards, as I should do in their circumstances' (Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, quoted in Delany, p. 134). Given my experience and political inclinations, I interpret the image as an illustration of the oppressive conditions imposed on the working class in post-Depression Britain, but Brandt, perhaps partly as a result of his privileged background, seems to have lacked social concerns in this context and 'never intended them … for political propaganda' (Brand, quoted in Hacking, p.61) and did not, in any case, publish the images for more than a decade (MoMA, 2003, p.19).
There are other features of the photograph that merit a mention: the fact that the female subject is not eating; what appears to be a satchel hanging on the rear wall; and the picture on that wall, partially obscured but showing a face, seemingly peering around the drying clothes. It is possible, even inevitable that the viewer will try to interpret such features in their own way, but given Brandt's practice of arranging the scenery and choreographing the subjects, no sensible conclusion can be reached on their implications. This is a manifestation of polysemy, a Barthian concept that Salkeld (2018, p.56) defines as a photograph's 'capacity for generating multiple meanings'.
I had naively accepted Brandt's early British work as representational and was disappointed to learn in research for this essay that many images were staged. While this might undermine Brandt's perceived integrity as a photographer, my respect for the aesthetic quality of his work, especially the later portraits and nudes remains intact. However manipulated this image was in the details, it is still a notable example of the portrayal of workers' conditions at that time. Ultimately, I have always supposed that many photographers manipulate their subjects, for example, I cannot see how some of Cartier-Bresson (fig. E1) and Ronis' (fig. E2) work can be anything other than contrived. This being the case, it is entirely reasonable for Brandt to have done so.
[1273 words]
References
americansuburbx.com (2011) Bill Brandt: A Statement on Photography (1948) [online]. americansuburbx.com. Available from https://americansuburbx.com/2011/04/bill-brandt-statement-on-photography.html [Accessed 19 May 2020].
Barrett, T. (2000) Criticising photographs, an introduction to understanding images. 3rd ed. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing
Barthes, R. (1967) Rhetoric of the Image. In: Wells, L. (ed.), The photography reader. London: Routledge, pp.114-125.
Bate, D. (2007). The emperor's new clothes. In: J. Elkins (ed.), Photography theory, London: Routledge, pp.253-255.
Boothroyd, S (2017) Context and narrative. Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Brandt, B (1936) The English at Home. London: Scribners
Brandt, B., Haworth-Booth, M., Mellor, D., Mellor, D. and Philadelphia Museum of Art (1985) Bill Brandt : behind the camera : photographs 1928-1983. Oxford: Phaidon.
Bull, S. (2010) Photography. Abingdon,Oxon: Routledge.
Delaney, P (2004) Bill Brandt, a life. London: Jonathan Cape.
Hacking, J (2012) Lives of the great photographers. London: Thames & Hudson.
Hutcheon, P. (2020) Female witness in Alex Salmond trial says complainants fear for their safety [online]. dailyrecord.co.uk. Available from https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/female-witness-alex-salmond-trial-21791879 [Accessed 30 April 2020].
Jeffrey, I. (2007) Bill Brandt. London: Thames & Hudson (Photofile).
Marien, M.W. (2015) Photography Visionaries. London: Laurence King Publishing.
Martin, G. (2020) The meaning and origin of the expression: A picture is worth a thousand words [online]. phrases.org.uk. Available from https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html [Accessed 9 May 2020].
Massie, A. (2020) Cleared but tainted, ‘El Presidente’ Alex Salmond turns guns on SNP enemies [online]. thetimes.co.uk. Available from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cleared-but-tainted-el-presidente-alex-salmond-turns-guns-on-snp-enemies-plgk7mshc [Accessed 30 April 2020].
MoMA (2003) Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light. New York: MoMA.
Ratcliffe, S. (2016) Oxford essential quotations: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1604) act 5, sc. 1 [online]. oxfordreference.com. Available from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00007094 [Accessed 9 May 2020].
Salkeld, R. (2018) Reading Photographs. London: Bloomsbury.
Shore, S. (2007) The nature of photographs. 2nd ed. London: Phaidon Press.
Szarkowski, J. (1978) Mirrors and Windows. New York: MoMA.
Szarkowski, J. (2007) The photographer's eye. Revised 3rd ed. New York: MoMA.
Welch, E & Long, J. (2009). Introduction: a small history of photography studies. In: J. Long., A. Noble & E. Welch (eds), Photography: theoretical snapshots, London: Routledge, pp.1-15.
Wright, M. and Herrera, D. (2017) The Pithead Baths of Great Britain [online]. modernisttourists.com. Available from https://modernisttourists.com/2017/01/01/the-pithead-baths-of-great-britain/ [Accessed 18 May 2020].