Photography was seen as a 'sworn witness' - fact based medium to convey information. It is strongly linked with documentary and the form of recording information to convey to an audience. It is debatable that photography is unbiased because everything has subliminal views; the photographer took the photograph from a certain angle, in a certain light, etc for a reason.
Photography has been closely associated with realism, however it is a representation of reality which is recorded by individuals. This is called 'constructing' because they think about the image that they want before that take the photograph; constructing its final outcome.
Digital manipulation has problematised the concept of documentary realism and truth because now we can literally do anything with photographs to change them and edit them.
Photography became central to the concepts of modernity and modernism in the 20th century. Modernism is a concept and movement aimed to encourage new ways of perceiving, which would ultimately produce a new kind of person.
Russian constructavists started to explore aesthetics and views through photography. An example of this sort of work is by Aleksander Rodchenko; famous Russian artist and photographer. Here are few examples of his work that we looked at in this lecture.
Pioneer with a trumpet, 1930
Stairs, 1929
Photography in many ways has helped create a fairer society as people were able to see poverty, war and social injustice for the first time.
Photographer Dorothea Lange, famed for her photograph 'Migrant Mother' (1936), has been under much debate because of the way in which she constructed her photography. The images were viewed by the public as simply fact and documenting something that had happened. However, Lange constructed her photographs in such a way to make the most impact on the viewer.
Migrant Mother, 1936
The image was constructed by Lange because she wanted something to represent poverty and present it to the masses. She 'wasn't interested in her name or her history' and so she was literally in it just to get that perfect metaphor for 'poverty'.
We then looked at Dzigo Vertov and his work in the film industry. He was heavily influenced by futurism which celebrates technology over nature. Famously, Vertov created the film 'Man With a Movie Camera', a film showing Soviet citizens interacting with the machinery of modern life. He was part of a film movement where the filmmakers were called 'kinoks' or kino-eyes. The films made by these Soviet Kinoks in the 1920's were referred to as 'life caught unawares'. They wanted to abolish all non-documentary film making; causing a stir in the industry.
'I am eye. I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, am showing you a world, the likes of which only I can see.' - Dzigo Vertov.
At the end of the lecture, we watched 'The Genius of Photography'; one episode in a short series that discusses photography through the ages and what is happening now with photography. We watched some of the last episode in the series, and I intend to watch the rest of the series in my own time because I found it very enlightening.
My Reflection
So I was excited for this lecture because as you may know I love photography. I am starting out and learning about photography outside of university. The whole lecture to me was so informative and I couldn't get enough of the discussions that we were having about the impact that photography can have and also about image manipulation. This is why I intend to watch the rest of the series we looked at because I know that I will benefit from learning about the photography industry as well as the film industry! I would also like to watch Vertov's 'Man With a Movie Camera' because I have heard of this film prior to the lecture and also seen some footage. It looks like it would be a interesting film to watch and from watching it I would hopefully learn more about futurism as this intrigues me. Overall in this lecture I was pleased with its content and fully understood what we were talking about. Doing the reading before hand really did help a lot and I know why we get these readings each week - they help!
You Learn Something New Everyday
It seems a few people knew of Dorothea Lange; however I was not familiar with her work. I now know about her and her photographic style, so I look forward to learning more about individual photographers and filmmakers.
Speak Soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment