Part 4 Reading Photographs, Project 1, Exercise 1

1. Look carefully at Erwitt’s image and write some notes about how the subject matter is placed within the frame.

The big dog’s right leg and the woman’s right leg are very roughly on thirds as are the ankles, measured from the bottom of the image. The small dog’s face is as far from the right hand edge as is the the big dog’s left leg from the left hand edge. The space at the bottom of the picture matches the space from the top of the picture to the hem of the coat.

2. The image is structured with vertical lines. They are, from left to right, the blurred tree in the background, two big dog’s legs, two human legs, the small dog’s lead and a vague frame shape on the right. There are also horizontal lines. Our eye constructs a line along the toes, another, more vague, at about the height of the small dog and another at the hem of the coat. All the elements in focus are in the same plane. The depth of filed is quite narrow. There are foreground and background planes which are blurred out but which locate the main elements in the pictorial space.

3. The image says, “I saw an amusing incongruity. This is a good joke, isn’t it!”

4. The structure of the image isolates the main elements and, as we naturally read from left to right, we come across the joke after seeing the long legs first. After a moment we are amused by the size of the small dog, then by its expression with its Marty Feldman eyes and, lastly, by its hat and knitted coat. The joke continues beyond the photograph. What sort of owner gives her small dog such a hat and a little coat fastened at the neck with a neat bow and tassels? And then we imagine how they do not keep in step as they walk on and how their legs must move in a complicated rhythm. If the movement translated into music we would hear the bass notes of the big dog, the quick and vital melody of the small dog and the strings of the woman holding the piece together.

The picture was originally intended as an advert for boots but Erwitt’s sense of humour and skill in seeing a joke and presenting it perfectly in this picture is a common thread in his work. This image, for example, (Brazil, Buzios, 1990) shows the same sense of mischief.

We see two pairs of hairy legs among a crowd of smooth and hairless ones. There is the same sense of incongruity, the same arrangement of planes, the same very rough division of thirds, and the same low vantage point.

Notes on The Elu[va]sive Portrait: mimicry, Masquerade and Camouflage by Ayelet Zohar

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/tap/7977573.0002.102?view=text;rgn=main

“The ‘truth’ of the photographic portrait becomes both elusive and evasive, as the portrait image itself becomes an object of inquiry, rather than a piece of information.”

For example, womanliness or manliness can be “assumed and worn as a mask … much as a thief will turn out his pockets and ask to be searched to prove he has not stolen goods.”

Gregory Crewdson. Research Point

1. Do you think there is more to this work than aesthetic beauty?

Physical beauty, the beauty of a well formed idea, mathematical beauty, natural beauty and aesthetic beauty all have features in common. Each celebrates a kind of form which fits the way we perceive things and resonates with us to make us notice it as something beyond the ordinary.

Crewdson’s images are beautiful because they arrest the eye and make us look harder at what he presents to us. The colours, the lighting and the positioning of various elements make a harmonious whole but this is not all. The images are more than an abstract construction  of colours, lights and shapes. Each element has meaning. In this image the sky is light but casts very little illumination on the scene. The main light area is in the distance and offers very little information besides giving great depth all the way to the vanishing point. The shops are anodyne and offer no narrative of their own. They become impersonal features of the environment. The car with a passenger and an open door contains the whole narrative while leaving the story wide open to any number of interpretations. This is like a scene from a dream. We know something is going on but we can only guess at what. We are allowed to let our minds drift and make up the story for ourselves and that is the beauty of this picture.

2. Do you think Crewdson succeeds in making his work ‘psychological’?

There is a psychological element in his work.We don’t just wonder what is going on in his pictures but we also wonder about the state of mind of his characters. What is the woman in the passenger seat thinking? Where has the driver gone? How long will she wait before moving? What decisions will she have to make? Where will she go from here? Is she frightened or passive?

3. What is your main goal when making pictures? Do you think there’s anything wrong with making beauty your main goal? Why and why not?

My main goal is to make a picture that is enjoyable to look at. Sometimes this means just making a record of something I’ve seen like this trace left by a bird that flew into my window.
Sometimes it means trying to make something beautiful, like this picture of frost on a windscreen.

And sometimes it means preserving a memory as in this image of M at her computer.
There’s nothing wrong with making beauty the main goal except when making a picture of something intrinsically ugly like the aftermath of an accident or a bombing. The narrative of the picture must match the context. Form and function must be coherent if the image is to mean anything. Reportage does not have to be beautiful.

Hokusai and Jeff Wall–A Sudden Gust of Wind

Hokusai’s scene is sparse, formal and full of movement. There is nothing extraneous. This is the real world pared down to basics. We feel as well as see the wind. The papers take our eye across the scene while the road and the dark hill just off centre draw our attention further into the depth of the scene giving it a three dimensional feel. There is no verbal connection between the leaves of the tree (ha) and the leaves of paper (kami) in Japanese, the connection is purely visual.

Wall’s image is meant to be viewed as a backlit transparency. This adds vibrancy and vigour to the scene. It is also very big at three metres wide so that the viewer is drawn right into the scene. His image stands on its own without reference to Hokusai but when the two are seen together they interact. The temptation is to see the print on the same scale at Wall’s image. The constructed reality of Wall’s picture makes the same point as Hokusai. Both want us to feel the wind and to be intimately involved in the event. Both involve us in an experience of the human condition.

The Rhine II 1999 Andreas Gursky

On 12 February 2017 this photograph was sold for £7 million. (1)

“Gursky’s photograph is a detached comment on the sublime connotations of Romanticism. Equally, the figurative content of the picture serves to gently parody the sublime connotations of Abstract Expressionism.” (2) It bears comparison with Andreas Richter’s painting.

“September is so subtle that I almost passed it without realising its content. Beyond the traces of scraped back paint which hang on the surface arresting the eye, it isn’t immediately obvious that these are the twin towers standing against the blue sky the moment the second aeroplane hit. There is no dramatic explosion, just grey smoke billowing from the grey building as it dissolves into abstraction. It is an astonishing painting. For me, quietly highlighted within its amalgamation of ideas and processes, is the essence of Richter’s practice.

The scene, based on one of the western world’s most provocative photographs has been rendered in a gentle and straightforward manner.  It is suppressed almost completely however, from the bold and rapid erasure of a paint scraper.  Neither a spectacle nor an illustration, it seems to hang in the balance between the formal qualities of process-based abstraction and the formidable implications of its source image. The immense tension between icon and anti-icon, wrapped up with the most tenuous handling gives the painting a potency which I can only imagine a master could conceive. Not only this, but locked within this beautiful work is an array of nuances and effects which only paint can deliver; this parting once again spurred the question whether I was indeed in the presence of work by the world’s greatest living painter.” (3)

 

(1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/8884829/Why-is-Andreas-Gurskys-Rhine-II-the-most-expensive-photograph.html

(2) http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gursky-the-rhine-ii-p78372

(3) Simon Bayliss https://thepaintingimperative.com/archive/issue-2/gerhard-richter-the-soft-machine/

Part 4, Project 2, Exercise

Rip out an advertising image and circle and write on as many parts as you can. Comment on what it is, what it says about the product and why you think it is there.

I chose this advert from New Scientist and circled these areas.

Each part of the image denotes a single, carefully constructed element. What is there is translated from the reality, whatever that was, into a photographic representation for a particular reason. The reason lies in the connotation of the elements. The image of the young woman denotes a young woman. The connotations of her image are a whole other story.

As for the ‘studium’ of the image, it is an advert with a particular message aimed at the kind of demographic which reads New Scientist. More especially, it is aimed at young scientists and even more pointedly at young female scientists. It takes its place in the general contemporary demand for more female scientists.

It lives alongside, for example, Lego’s introduction of a miniset of female scientists (1) and this complaint in the journal Nature: “Your News story “Societies spurn women editors” (Nature 440, 974–975; 200610.1038/440974a) suggests that there is ongoing and systematic bias against women for the position of editor of Evolution.” (2) and this from the New York Times: “The new study goes a long way toward providing hard evidence of a continuing bias against women in the sciences. Only one-fifth of physics Ph.D.’s in this country are awarded to women, and only about half of those women are American; of all the physics professors in the United States, only 14 percent are women.” (3)

It is a pity sociologically that the punctum, the thing that makes the reader sit up and take notice, is the attractive young woman in the forefront of the image. In a more equal society it would not be necessary to aim the advert so squarely at young women. Even so, she is outnumbered by the men in the picture and they are the ones who seem to be doing actual work.

I’ve circled and numbered each element in the image and I will deal with each in turn, saying what each element denotes and then describing the connotation.

1. “People who are happy in their jobs are more likely to be healthy”
   This tagline sets the tone for the whole page. It is placed at the top left of the image where people normally start reading and its font is clear, easy to read, and comes across in one gestalt glance. The claim is unsupported by any text but the image fleshes it out by showing young healthy people obviously enjoying their jobs.
2. “Find the right one now”
   The instruction is clear in a colour which makes the words stand out. The ‘right one’ may be the job but it could also be a prospective life partner. The girl is not wearing a ring. The boys look like eligible bachelors. This is an environment where many people will meet their mates.
3. “Search newscientistjobs.com for thousands of STEM opportunities, from graduate recruitment to CEOs” (4)
   The language here is technical and relates specifically to the kind of jobs on offer. The advert will not attract people who do not know the jargon. It is an invitation to join the cognoscenti, a group of like minded and possibly sympathetic people.
4. The environment.
   The dark ceiling and natural light make this an informal, welcoming workplace where people can express themselves. They work in their own light. The environment is comfortable and people can move about easily. They are unlikely to feel restricted and, not being tied to a desk, can cooperate and share their ideas.
5. The pipes in the ceiling space.
   These offer a sense of perspective leading the eye further back into the scene. There is much more to this space than can be seen in the picture. This environment has possibilities beyond what we can see.
6. The woman is young and attractive.She belongs to a minority group in two ways, as a woman in a STEM environment and as belonging to an ethnic minority. She is obviously happy and in the next moment may say something like, “Hey! Look what I’ve found!” Her necklace is a symbol of femininity at the same time as indicating individuality. Her image is of a piece with this  celebrating women in science. (5)
   
   Ethnic diversity is an important part of the need to recruit more women into STEM careers.
7. The young men.
   They are both looking at a laptop. They have cups of coffee? and they are engrossed in their activity. One sits and the other stands. This is a fluid situation which will change in an instant. They are not restricted in any way but free to move and, by implication, think as the logic of their project suggests. Neither wears a tie. They wear jeans and trainers. The fact that they wear shirts and not t-shirts suggests that they are serious people. Their closeness shows that they are comfortable in one another’s company. There is no evidence of a hierarchy here. It is the project that counts. They outnumber the young woman but their position in the frame makes them small in relation to the woman and being slightly out of focus reduces their importance.
8. The young woman holds a tablet computer. She is not restricted to a desktop workstation and the tablet is more personal than a laptop. It looks big I.e. expensive. This is a company/environment that invests in its employees. She is well manicured and wears no rings. This is another expression of freedom.
9. The young woman wears a comfortable top. The dress code is smart casual with the emphasis on casual. Again, in this workplace, who and what you are is more important than appearances. The colours are well chosen. The blue sleeves are a complementary colour to her light brown skin.
10. There are no blinds on the windows and there is clutter on the sills. This emphasises the informal and comfortable nature of this place. Staff are able to settle in and make the environment their own.
11. The young woman wears jeans with rolled up hems, no socks and fashionable canvas shoes – another sign of the informality and freedom encouraged by this kind of job. Any independent and intelligent woman would be happy here.
12. The young woman is sitting on the arm of a comfortable sofa with her feet up on the seat. Nobody is going to say, “Get your feet off the chair!” She is responsible and adult enough to know that her shoes are clean and will not be a problem. The sofa is strewn with papers. This is a break out area and not somewhere to laze around. This is a working sofa.
13. New Scientist. Work Smarter.
    This magazine is a necessary component in this kind of working environment. People who read this magazine will fit right in. In fact, the young woman could easily be reading the magazine on her tablet!
14. The mobile phone on the coffee table.
    Phones are not forbidden in this office. They are an essential ingredient in this workplace. They are an important link to the outside world suggesting collaboration and further opportunities. The office is not all there is in this world of work.
15. Are these estate agents’ handouts?
    If you get a job as a result of this advert you will be able to afford a place of your own. The world is opening up for new graduates. It’s offering a step up in society for CEOs. This workplace is full of promise.
16. The main elements of the image are arranged in a square taking up the bottom two thirds of the page. The square is divided diagonally into two triangles with the young woman’s head at the apex on the right and ‘New Scientist Work Smarter’ at the bottom left. The right hand triangle makes the foreground while the left recedes into the middle distance. This arrangement moves the eye round the image from back to front so that it rests in turn on the woman’s face and the tag ‘New Scientist Work Smarter’. These are the elements that will stick and illustrate the assertion in the top third of the image.

 

(1) http://www.inc.com/sue-williams/why-we-need-women-in-stem.html

(2) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7095/full/441812b.html

(3) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-women-in-science.html

(4) STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

(5) https://www.womeninscience.co.uk/

On translation

Each week I write an exegetical commentary on a passage of scripture used in the liturgy. This involves putting the text in its context and trying to indicate what it might have meant to the people who first heard it or read it. The course material points to the same way of approaching translation. Humpty Dumpty’s conversation with Alice on p.94 of the course is an oblique reference to this passage in Matthew’s Gospel 6:24-34

This is what I wrote about one such passage.

The key words in this passage of the Gospel are “No one can serve two masters.” Jesus goes on to give examples of things that might exert mastery in competition with putting God first.

Matthew quotes Jesus’ words, “You can’t serve God and Money” using the Aramaic word ‘mammon’. This did not have any negative connotation: it was simply a common word meaning ‘property’. The Sanhedrin, the highest court in Jerusalem, had extensive laws and arrangements for dealing with property and disputes over it.[1] The Sanhedrin, also the highest religious court in the land, spent a lot of time dealing with cases involving property and arguments about who owned what and who was qualified to judge such cases. Litigants had to agree to the conduct of the case at every stage creating many opportunities for further disputes. All this legal business could distract the court from its religious duties. Jesus was not saying something that people did not already know. The activities of the Sanhedrin were as well known as those of any other political body.

Jesus uses a typical rabbinic teaching method called ‘light and heavy’. It follows the general formula ‘if this … then how much more that’.[2] He sets out a series of antitheses; firstly ‘life’ versus ‘what you eat and drink’. Matthew uses a word for ‘life’ which also means ‘soul’ but English hasn’t got a word which means both at the same time. The translator plumps for ‘life’ here to make the opposition between the two elements clear. Matthew uses the same word later in the Gospel where ‘soul’ is the better translation.[3] In Jewish thought in Jesus’ time soul and body are one entity and it would be nonsensical to separate the two. The word for the ‘body’ you put clothes on is different. The same word is used for ‘corpse’. The contrast is between being concerned with reality and worrying about appearances.

There is a similar problem for the translator when Jesus says “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew’s word for ‘life’ here has several meanings and it means all of them at the same time, though to different degrees. One meaning is ‘the span of life’, I.e. the number of years you will live. It also means ‘your height’ and, consequently, ‘your handsomeness or physical beauty’ since height and comeliness were thought to go together. Our translation tries to deal with this by using a length, the cubit, to refer to a span of time, leaving aside the connotation that worrying will not improve your looks.

Jesus rounds things off with two typically rabbinic statements. Matthew’s Greek has two words for ‘evil’. The one translated here as ‘trouble’ refers to evil from a human, not necessarily a divine point of view, the sort of trouble that puts you in front of the Sanhedrin.

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[1] You can read some of the Sanhedrin’s law here. http://drisha.org/sanhedrin-3/#

[2] There’s a clearer example in Matthew 7:11

[3] Matthew 16:26