PH4023 - wk1 John A. Walker - Context as a determinant of photographic meaning

Structure
- first reading thoughts + notes
- research + context
- second reading + thoughts
- [host] output 5min overview + formulate 2 questions that arise

John A. Walker
context as a determinant of photographic meaning (1980)
from: the camerawork essays (context + meaning in photography, 1997)

introduction

- prompted by a desire to clarify the role that context plays in changing the meaning of photographs
- 2 prior essays, structural analysis + iconographic analysis :s
- marked change from internal to external
- individuals, unique...... many meanings of an image. Seems to imply an image can have billions of meanings. Did this not render it meaningless?
- ignored that a concensus may be reached
I found myself, the wisdom of crowds owed itself very well to this notion

- clear some images are ambiguous, pschology duck/rabbit picture.
    [ the same signifier has two signified ]
- the number of meanings derived will not be enormous.

- reasons: ambiguity + complexity
     the variety of contexts
- reception theory deals with this death of the author + birth of the implied reader
- reception history, over time.
- through discussion we can learn about others thoughts and feelings regarding pictures

- remember famous example: Barthes, emotional impact of a family photograph

- this is a contribution to ' reception studies'

beginning of essay

- wedding photograph, can lend itself to be recontextualised in many contexts

- third effect. when (1) photograph is placed next to (2) photograph we link them together and make connections between them
- paintings used to denote specific geographical locations, moved and lost all spatial awareness

- media has influence over the way an image is read, eg surrounded by text (factual, supportive) or in a high art magazine, white border, it becomes a precious object.

circulation/currency.

 - meaning determined by spatio-temporal point of origin... a photograph has moved away in space and time...
idea, a graph exploring the dispersal of an image, an encoding which is evermore possible now with location at the touch of a button... to show the origins of an image, encoded, or something similar.
- photographs meaning seems to be viewed as eternally fixed...
- it is also subject to change however, because of this context
- NEED to examine the life of an image, as well as its birth (creation)
is it then possible to examine the death of an image? one which no longer exists and never will again? All that remains of this image then, is the writings that are left of it and the memorys we have. How like a book, an entire book to describe an image, a scene... but its death.
-photographs are like a currency, used to fulfill a purpose.

jo spence

- taken by Terry Demnett, displayed recently in feminist section
- transposes album photographs into the public realm.
- included unflattering photographs of herself
shares same topics as my own self portrait project, or perhaps as the project evolves and expands it is hard to not acquire new themes to attribute to the mass of imagery.
 - forces people to see her in a new way

- the gallery has deradicallised radical photography...

Mental context or set

- the beholder's share, a viewer approaches an image not a tabula rasa, but with rich and full experiences and memory's
- social factor's change perception. gender, class, age...

- analysis of people's experience of a photograph is much more difficult than analysing pictures... what does go on in other peoples heads?
- danger.... ideological individualism
 - media depends upon commonalities between people for communication.

-problematic to judge single image (we;re inundated with visual imagery daily)
- context of contemporary things... statue, different meanings. intended meaning vs established meanings (how like words)

context so troublesome, it lies outside the artists control
- film + audience, more advanced

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