#5imag016w.1

[jade-chopra]

Week 1: Exploring the Image

In this first lecture, we were introduced to the ways of exploring an image: methodologies. A methodology is a way of discussing and analysing the topic. These are useful for us and we need them to analyse images to delve further into the discussion of a piece of work. It also allows for a deeper analysis of the meaning/message that we can see in the image.

An example of the methodologies we can use include: 

History

Photography theory

Psychoanalysis

Philosophy

Globalisation theory

Postcolonialism

Art theory

Gender theory

Urban theory

Environmental theory

Each of these can be broken down into smaller sub categories which expands our analysis and can help with our understanding of an image or series of images, beyond a purely subjective look at it.

[taylerrrrr07]

Advanced Research Methods

seminar task

7/12/2018

Our group presentation was about historical photography. We chose to focus on the Vietnam war as it’s a topic that we were interested in and felt passionately enough about to be able to create a presentation in the best way possible. I wasn’t there for the actual presentation; however, I did take part in the research and preparation of it, so I will focus on that aspect. What I think went well was the fact that we managed to really understand what we wanted to put in the presentation. At first the thought of having to make a presentation wasn’t a pleasing one, and gave me quite a bit of anxiety, however when we sat down together and started to research the images and the text that we wanted to include, it felt very easy and comfortable. It wasn’t too far out of my comfort zone which was good as it made the prospect less stressful for me. What I think could have been improved on would be the way we went around the presentation. It took until a few days before until we had all sat down with what we had. We had notes and we knew what we wanted to include, but I felt as though having had more set up sooner could have led to a better presentation in my eyes. It could have included more information or more images that we had found along the way, rather than what was all put up. Also, I wish I could have taken part in it too. I feel as though it would have pushed me more, which isn’t something I would have enjoyed or even been comfortable with, but it would have helped me in the future if anything similar is to ever come up, id feel more comfortable in the situation. What I learnt from this process was the importance of researching thoroughly. There was information about the photographers and the images themselves that I would have never known about if it wasn’t for the research I had done. For example, learning more about the ‘napalm girl’ and what her life is like now, as well learning a photograph had been given a new name by the army rather than the name it already had. It shows to me the importance of research, and how it can help me to understand in greater detail the things I want to talk about in future essays as well as future work as a whole.

[taylerrrrr07]

5th December 2018

slides 8-13 of our presentation 

[taylerrrrr07]

Advanced Research Methods

Week 4: History and Theory of art as method

15th October 2018

There are three different theories of art. These three aesthetic theories of art are Imitationalism, Formalism, and Emotionalism. Imitationalism refers to the realistic representation of art meaning that it judges the art based around how realistic its concept is and how realistic it looks. Formalism is the study of the art, based around its form and its style. It is used to discuss the visual aspects of the art, for example how an artist can have a specific style, or how different pieces of art can have a similar style. Emotionalism refers to the emotional nature of the art, including strong excessive emotions. This could be linked to things like propaganda or even morbid emotions. When it comes to analysing images using theory of art, all of three of these can be used.

When it comes to the realism of the photograph, what it is of and if it’s a realistic representation is linked easily into photography. For example, most photographs of landscapes or portraits are a very realistic representation of the world and the realistic way we see things, however some photographs question that realism, things like abstract and distortion in photography can change the way the image looks and takes away from the realistic forms it’s based on. One example of this could be the fag face mask by Zach Blas who uses images of everyday people and creates a distorted and alien image. There’s nothing realistic about this, other than the use of those faces.

Most forms of photography can be based around formalism, landscape photography, portraits, even abstract photography all have their own styles and own forms and styles, some people can easily have the same or similar style in their work, whether its intentional or not. The forms of the photography will always be there as each piece of work will be categorised and put into its own section, its own style and can be linked together easily. When it comes to analysing photography in an emotional way, things like war photography or poverty areas are the types of photography that come to mind. For example the image of the Napalm girl comes to mind for me. At first view its an emotional photograph in its own right, the image of children running and screaming during the war isn't something nice, but when you think about these are children, burned and running from a gas attack, the emotional nature is there. It’s a very powerful image, that in no way can be looked at without emotion. Its that part of art theory that is really important for this image in particular, as I think the emotional side of it makes it a more powerful photograph, rather than just an image of children running down the street, its children running for their lives.

[taylerrrrr07]

Advanced Research Methods - Shape Of Light Exhibition

8th October 2018

The shape of light exhibition at the Tate Modern showcased 100 years’ worth of abstract art and photography, including sculptures, negatives and photo books. My favourite image from this exhibition was by Brett Weston. In a series of image from 1911-1993, there was an image of an ice formation from 1955. What I like about this photograph is the abstract nature of it. At first glance I thought it was a broken window or just glass in general, but after reading that it was ice, its quite an interesting thing. The way that the ice has formed, with the sharp and jagged edges around the outside of the image, as well as the circular shape in the middle, all made up from ice. It’s amazing to see the ice in this shape and way, like its nothing I’ve ever seen before from ice, and it made think of distortion and the way in which that could distort the view of other things around it, for example if you saw a person or an object through this ice formation, you wouldn’t see what we would normally see, and you could even question the exact object in view. It definitely stood out in my mind as abstract and distorted photography is something, I’m very passionate about.

When it comes to the types of methodology that could be used to analyse the images, I think about the history side of things. For me, these images show a change in history, and a change in photography. If you think about when photography was first invented, it was never meant to take pictures of shattered glass or kaleidoscopic shapes, it was meant for portraits and for people. It shows for me how the concept of these images is abstract in its own way, and not just visually. The concept itself for these photographs is abstract and odd, like some of these photographs people might take by accident and just delete them which I find quite beautiful. Whether planned or not, the people who took these photographs saw these shapes, these patterns and decided consciously to take the image and produce it, and they are beautiful images, images that could easily be overlooked. They also give emotions, for example the ice photograph gives me a sense of unnerve, like something dangerous is about to happen, but to others they could see something peaceful, or threatening in this, which creates a philosophical debate between other people.

[taylerrrrr07]

Advanced Research Methods

Week 2- Philosophy as a Method: Ethics, Aesthetics, Ontology of Photography

1st October 2018

Philosophy focuses on the use of logical arguments and general fundamental problems such as existence, knowledge and values just to name a few. It makes people think, it examines their beliefs, can question this beliefs and also help to support their beliefs, all in one photo and create and split options based on those religions. Philosophy can make people question right and wrong, make them think more about what is right to them and wrong to others, things we wouldn’t normally think as being wrong but putting a thought or an idea in their minds to change this. It can also question morality within people, what is morally right and morally wrong, what we see being okay, but when its really talked about and put into context, we really don’t agree with. As a whole it can make people question and argue everything they know and believe in, just by looking at a photograph.

Philosophy therefore is really important in assisting the analysis of a photograph. Someone could take a photograph on the street, no context, no meaning, just something they see and like, and philosophy would but ideas and questions into peoples minds, cause debates, cause arguments, lead to lectures based all around this one image, that with the philosophical analysis could mean nothing. An image someone takes of a homeless man for example, or even of a poor area, people or no people, would lead to a debate about the ethics of the situation. Things like famine, poverty, war stricken areas, effects of a natural disaster can all be photographed and reproduced, but ethically should they be. Should people be using these images for their own personal gain? Should they get to profit from other peoples suffering when they themselves get no benefits? It makes you question what is right or wrong, beautiful or not, it gives a wider meaning to these images, these people that we might not really know anything about.

[taylerrrrr07]

advanced research methods

week 1: exploring the image

24th September 2018

Methodology is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary : a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity. Methodology is something that is needed to analyse work in different ways. Depending on the subject, this could be a historical analysis or it could be a theoretical analysis.  When it comes to methodology and methods, there are a wide range of methods that can be can used to analyse photographs. We could use just the one method, for example history to analyse a photograph, or we could use a wide range of methods such as history, theory and philosophy to create a wider methodology for an image. Methodology is needed to analyse images to help give for one context to an image and two it helps to define the way an image can be analysed. People could choose to analyse and use a historic methodology for an image, however another person could take a more theoretical approach to the same image. They are both different types of methods to analyse the photograph, however photographs can be seen in different ways by different people, and can be analysed in different ways, giving a broader meaning to the photograph, as well as creating a better methodology for that photograph, giving it a wider context and greater and more expanded meaning. 

One image I think that helps to understand visual work better is the falling man photograph. 

At first glance you could come across this image and just see a man falling through the air, there isn't really any context to the photograph. After further inspection an research however, you see that this is an image from September the 11th 2001. This helps to give even further context to the image has a whole new meaning and context behind it. It shows the suffering and pain of the day, the people dying from the event and the pain that would have been associated with this but it also shows a sense of fear and desperation on this persons part. The fact that he chose to jump from the building as a better and less painful way to go, which to any other person would be a horrible way to die, the situation made this seem like the best option, which in itself is unthinkable and nothing you'd want. Knowing all of the information and the history of the image helps you understand this one photograph in a really clear way, and gives so much depth to the photograph.

[kelseyphotogjournal]

Reflection on Group Presentation: History as a Method

For the Reflection on the Group Presentation, we decided to write the reflection together seeing as we both did the presentation together we thought this would make more sense as it was a group presentation shared between the two of us.

Our group decided to look into how using history as a method for the presentation to analyse photos could be useful. The time period we looked at was the years which the Vietnam War took place. We chose this time frame as many influential photos were taken around that time and had a huge influence on how people viewed the war, particularly in the US. War photos taken by photojournalists and native photographers such as Nick Ut showed raw images about the horrors of war.

We focused on 4 main images that we think had a huge impact on the war. The first was the famous image titled ‘Terror of War’ better known as the ‘Napalm Girl’ taken by vietnamese photographer, Nick Ut who took the photo whilst fleeing the napalm stricken town of Trang Bang. A photo that showed a naked 7 year old girl running out of the town in terror. A photo that showed the true horror of war and the inevitability of civilian casualties.

The second photo that we decided to look at is a photo that was taken by Art Greenspon that depicts an American squadron unit under fire in the middle of the thick Vietnamese jungle. A photo that has been heralded as the greatest photo of the war.

The final two images were in response to the war. The first of the two being a direct reaction from the buddhist monks with the catholic diem persecuting them and restricting how they could express their beliefs. The image simply titled ‘Burning Monk’ was captured by Malcolm Browne shows a protest of monks at a intersection in Saigon.

The final image is of an event in America in direct response to the lack of government intentions to bring the Vietnam War to an end. The Kent State Shooting photo taken by student John Filo shows a dead fellow student that had been shot after the protest turned violent.

The importance of context in all four photos cannot be stressed enough because without it it simply would be near impossible to work out exactly what was happening and how this could have such an impact on the people and arguably change the face of the war as a whole. Whilst we originally looked at just the visual content we realised that we couldn’t determine a huge amount of information from that and even a few images proved to be misleading without the historical context, particularly the one taken by Art Greenspon.

On the whole the two of us believe our presentation went well. The information we had was to the point and concise and it carried across well. My main concerns about the presentation was more the delivery rather than the content, if we were to do it again, it would be useful to practice it thoroughly beforehand. Only other thing I can think to say is that we could of done more research across different mediums, we got very little from books and such and most of out sources were from the internet and documentaries. But we believe that you can never do enough research when analysing images.