An entry from Errol Morris' blog for The New York Times.
Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
Errol Morris presents us with a discussion of the way in which a meeting between academia and photography has captured an obscure moment from the Crimean war and in doing so preserved (or created) the extra-photographic narrative of Roger Fenton and his assistant: daring wartime photographers or cowards; master craftsmen or disingenuous cheats.
This piece not only demonstrates Mr. Morris' abilities as a documentary researcher but it also goes beyond the extant work on the topic; extending this discourse with the article. His researcher's journey is prompted by only two sentences from Sontag's On Photography. Through his attention to these sentences Morris uncovers a controversy in academia and extends the debate regarding the propriety of Fenton's photographs of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”. By proposing a contest to the readers of the New York Times, Morris further extends the discourse initially represented by a mere two sentences and a few footnotes. This discussion raises important questions regarding authorial intentionality and critical interpretation.
Morris' focused inquiry reveals a criticism of Sontag's assumed authority within On Photography that is made clear by Morris' careful wording and footnoted critique of Sontag's unwillingness to include the photographs in her work. His blog assumes the voice of a video documentary complete with transcriptions of interviews and sometimes abrupt transitions suggestive of film editing techniques. Within this form is encoded Morris' critique of Sontag's authorial voice and polarization of an unclear discussion regarding not only the circumstances of two dated wartime photographs but also of a very dead man's bravery and character. Morris likens the cultural function of photographs to Ruskin's pathetic fallacy, a comparison that I agree with as both are results of technology's influence on 19th century thought.
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
ARTICLE: Pixel Perfect
an article by Lauren Collins from The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins
My thoughts:
Pascal Dangin is clearly an intelligent man and he seems to have considered the social repercussions of his actions but he still continues his work within the fashion industry. He cites that he is simply providing the supply for a demand. I don't strictly disagree with him but an argument could be made that he has some sort of moral obligation to his culture, community and peers to improve the lot of the individual in society. Dangin seems to have compromised by insisting upon anatomic limitations to his photo manipulation, however he acknowledges that his work presents an unrealistic standard of beauty.
An uneasy comparison could be made between the work Dangin creates and other industries associated with negative social impact, such as firearms, The guns that Smith and Wesson creates have the potential to ruin lives but (I believe, perhaps naively) this negative impact lies in the application of the technology. Dangin's work does not end lives but it has the potential to create, in an individual, a negative self-image that reduces quality of life.
If his retouched images were presented in a manner that makes their unnaturalness apparent, not through appearance (which is already the case), but through forum and commentary the social ills correlated to work such as his might be mitigated or somewhat reduced.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins
My thoughts:
Pascal Dangin is clearly an intelligent man and he seems to have considered the social repercussions of his actions but he still continues his work within the fashion industry. He cites that he is simply providing the supply for a demand. I don't strictly disagree with him but an argument could be made that he has some sort of moral obligation to his culture, community and peers to improve the lot of the individual in society. Dangin seems to have compromised by insisting upon anatomic limitations to his photo manipulation, however he acknowledges that his work presents an unrealistic standard of beauty.
An uneasy comparison could be made between the work Dangin creates and other industries associated with negative social impact, such as firearms, The guns that Smith and Wesson creates have the potential to ruin lives but (I believe, perhaps naively) this negative impact lies in the application of the technology. Dangin's work does not end lives but it has the potential to create, in an individual, a negative self-image that reduces quality of life.
If his retouched images were presented in a manner that makes their unnaturalness apparent, not through appearance (which is already the case), but through forum and commentary the social ills correlated to work such as his might be mitigated or somewhat reduced.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
ARTICLE: In Plato's Cave: Zombies and Susan Sontag
from Susan Sontag's collection of essays On Photography:
Sontag rather quickly asserts that "[t]o photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed" - that is, the subjective moment is transformed (literally) into an object. This creates a document of the past that is simultaneously factual and unreal. Sontag believes that photography has become prolific in our culture because it assuages certain anxieties felt over alienation resultant from the industrialization of labor. The camera makes the photographer a voyeur, removing them from the reality of the moment thus giving them mastery over their experience of the world.
I was amused to notice that many of Sontag's concepts were explored, in a somewhat hokey fashion, in George Romero's 2007 film "Diary of the Dead". The film is presented entirely in POV. This allows the documentarian to distance himself from danger and the discomfort of personal interaction. Romero seems to have developed a script directly out of quotes from Sontag: "While real people are out there killing themselves or other real people, the photographer stays behind his or her camera, creating a tiny element of another world: the image-world that bids to outlast us all." Diary of the Dead provides a clear example of photography as an act of "non-intervention". The documentarion does nothing but film as his friends are attacked. Though Romero's treatment is somewhat heavy handed (the camera is directly compared to a gun, reinforcing Sontag's claim that "there is aggression implicit in every use of the camera") it does well to illustrate a critique of the impact of the mediated image on an alienated culture.
Sontag rather quickly asserts that "[t]o photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed" - that is, the subjective moment is transformed (literally) into an object. This creates a document of the past that is simultaneously factual and unreal. Sontag believes that photography has become prolific in our culture because it assuages certain anxieties felt over alienation resultant from the industrialization of labor. The camera makes the photographer a voyeur, removing them from the reality of the moment thus giving them mastery over their experience of the world.
I was amused to notice that many of Sontag's concepts were explored, in a somewhat hokey fashion, in George Romero's 2007 film "Diary of the Dead". The film is presented entirely in POV. This allows the documentarian to distance himself from danger and the discomfort of personal interaction. Romero seems to have developed a script directly out of quotes from Sontag: "While real people are out there killing themselves or other real people, the photographer stays behind his or her camera, creating a tiny element of another world: the image-world that bids to outlast us all." Diary of the Dead provides a clear example of photography as an act of "non-intervention". The documentarion does nothing but film as his friends are attacked. Though Romero's treatment is somewhat heavy handed (the camera is directly compared to a gun, reinforcing Sontag's claim that "there is aggression implicit in every use of the camera") it does well to illustrate a critique of the impact of the mediated image on an alienated culture.
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