Roland Barthes' quote in Camera Lucida speaks to me on many levels. While the excerpt is concise, it says a lot about the power that photographs have to tell of the past, present, and future. When Barthes' says he is able to find the "truth of the face [he] had loved," I find myself able to relate to the images I've seen of friends and family over time. In my experience, photgraphs have acted as avenues for the portrayal of people through time and space. Through the agency of light, we have been given the gift of composing and advertising our own views of reality, making photography incredibly unique and intimate. This power alone is what I find so enthralling about taking photographs.
John Berger's excerpt from "Ways of Seeing" really speaks to me. When I take a picture, I have this hope that it will in some way capture the essence of that experience and I will then be able to share it with my friends so that they can share in that experience. However, to do this takes skill and a certain eye. As Berger says "every image embodies a way of seeing." To convey a certain feeling or aspect of an experience, one must see as the camera sees and capture only meaningful subjects. I really like this new frame of mind because now for me, photographs represent more than just point and shoot, it is an opportunity to express my view of the world. This is a more involved process but also more meaningful.
“The thing that matters is not what they show but what they hide from me, and above all, what they do not suspect is within them.” – Robert Bresson Bresson’s quote discusses how the viewer judges a photograph based on his own personal experience, regardless of the photographer’s intention. Photography is the relationship between what the artist presents and the viewer’s interpretation. I like this quote because it implies that the photographer can intentionally create art, but hide from the viewer that it was a result of chance, almost as if the artist is making something out of nothing. Bresson suggests that the viewer’s interpretation is more important than understanding the artist’s reasoning for how, when, why, or where the photo was taken. This idea reminds me of a favorite photo of mine, that I purchased as a poster at the start of college. The photo shows a man leaping across a puddle with an old-time London cityscape in the background. I like the poster because it portrays an element of fun and chance in guessing whether the man is going to make it across the puddle. For the longest time I did not want any information about the photograph revealed to me because it would potentially distort the carefree meaning I attached to the photo. Then a few years later I found out the photograph was called “Flooded road” by J.A. Hampton, taken to document a flood in London. I compare the feeling of disappointment to finding out your favorite love song is written about a cat. Hampton probably did not suspect that by documenting a man trying to make it to work in a flood would invoke such a strong sense of adventure. The photographer successfully hides the true meaning of the photograph so that I, the viewer, can attach personal significance to the image.
The quote that really spoke to me was by John Berger, from "Ways of Seeing". One of my favorite things about photography is that it isn't just capturing what one can see with the naked eye; it doesn't just capture an image of a moment. Instead, it can capture what you can't see, but what you can feel. The subject's feelings can be represented, and how the photographer feels can also be represented. You are seeing a situation or a person through the photographer's eyes rather than your own- photography gives you a perspective entirely different than your own. Most of my experience with photography has been point-and-shoot with a digital camera, and it doesn't take all that much thought to merely capture the image of a moment with the quick press of a button. I hope to incorporate a deeper sense of feeling into the photography I'll be doing for class, so that the images I'm producing evoke more than the memory of how fun a particular night was. I look forward to showing others how I feel through a photo, and to helping them see what it is I'm seeing, for as Berger said, "The photographer's way of seeing is reflected in choice of subject."
Photography serves to provide a proportioned perspective, or as John Berger puts it, “Every image embodies a way of seeing.” The photographer can choose to expound his/her perspective/way of seeing, but may also satirize, refute, or construe that of others in innumerous lights. I think a general conception of the photograph is that of an unadulterated record of a real moment in time. Though, what is real is wholly up to what the photographer portrays as real. The image the photographer captures may falsify or fortify what we believe to be real. The photographer may also toy with what we consider real and offer a perspective that depicts our reality, as we perceive it, as absurd. One could also make the absurd appear completely normal. It is this paradoxical relationship between photography and reality, and its subsequent inextricable effect on consciousness that grabs my interest.
Robert Bresson’s quote on the art of photography suggests that the most important thing to him when photographing a subject is not their initial appearance, but what understanding of the can be extracted even further from them. He wants the photograph to reveal something about the subject, something that the subject wasn’t even aware of. This thing that the subject “hides” is what interests Bresson the most, and to me is the foundation of photography. To me photography is about revealing something special or dramatic about a subject, either a human being or inanimate object, which the viewer was unaware of. This thing could perhaps be a refreshing and enlightening perspective on a serious topic. Or it could be a human’s personality, or a subject’s beauty. It seems that by photographing a three-dimensional subject and producing a two-dimensional representation of them captures a certain quality. The photograph is literally a captured moment in time that elicits thought and emotion from the viewer. A photographer wields a certain power with the camera, and the basis of that power is his or her own unique perspective. It is thus an incredible tool for creative expression. This is why I am so attracted to photography.
Roland Barthes’ quote from Camera Lucida caused me to remember a similar situation I had had when looking through photographs of my grandmother. I had never seen many pictures of her when she was young so I was taken aback at how different she was. My frail, yet vibrant, grandmother was just a shadow of herself when she passed and looking back at the photos of her I see that time and its victims around her had been weights slowing pulling her down. When I found a picture of her when she was dating my grandfather it was like looking at a completely different person. While my grandmother was always considered the life of the party, she gave off a completely different vibe in those photos than the photos of her more recent activities. She was not a grandmother, a mother, or even a wife at the time; just a working girl who was having fun without a care or true worry in the world. I became fascinated with the person my grandmother was and was curious when I looked through the photos what experiences she must have gone through in order to become the person she was when I knew her.
Barthes’ quote just reminded me that people are constantly changing; that a person you know today is not who they were ten years ago. This is why photography is important to me; it can show who a person is at that precise moment but it can also show how time has affected the person. It is a glimpse into a past that I could never experience outside of stories but with my grandmother gone, I will always have those photographs to remind me of the person my grandmother was before she was a mother and that is something I consider priceless.
Our day to day interactions present us with images of our world. From the time we wake up each morning until we go to bed each night we are immersed in images. These images can be photographs or posters that are displayed in our homes to more rapidly moving images that are present every time we stare at the computer or turn on the television. These images are a tangible form of how we see our world. They shape the opinions we have on an issue or a problem. At the same time these images speak about the person who took them, as John Berger points out in Ways of Seeing. Berger says, “The photographer’s way of seeing is reflected in choice of subject.” This idea explains that the photographer not only chooses his or her subject, but the way he or she takes the picture includes or excludes certain framing images that provide some insight into how the photographer sees the world. I see the truth in Berger’s words in my own photos. This summer I traveled to Greece. On this trip I encountered many beautiful landscapes that I sought to capture in order to help me describe my trip to those back home. However, no matter how far you zoom out or how many photos you take, part of the scenery or surroundings will be cut, as you personalize the photo by what most catches your eye as the photographer. Secondly, Berger points out that a photograph is not a “mechanical record”. I agree with this idea because I believe all photographs are a window that reminds us of past experiences. These experiences connect to memories that are associated with that image which prohibits the photo from being just a mechanical record as there are personal sentiments that come out.
I felt the quote from John Berger in “Ways of Seeing” really resonated with me. As a chemist, I could objectively see a photograph as essentially the reaction of a light-sensitive material to a certain amount of light based on the exposure time. Hypothetically, different photographers can capture the same physical object and call the photographs the same. This is what I felt Berger meant by a photograph as a “mechanical record”. However, a photograph can be much more than the physical object. The exact image captured on the photograph changes with each photographer, and gives insight into their “way of seeing”. A photograph can capture a photographer’s subjective view of the world. This view changes from one photographer to another, depending on the subject matter, use of shading, development techniques, etc. Berger emphasizes this point by saying that a photographer is analogous to a painter. A painter takes a canvas or paper and uses paints, oils, etc. as a way of creating an image meant to either entertain or convey a deeper meaning. I can see how photography could be considered comparable. Personally, I’ve always seen pictures at face value and have never taken the time to explore deeper meaning. I have photographs from family vacations, holidays, memorable milestones, and even the embarrassing events I’d rather forget. It’s always been through the use of a digital camera, especially with recent technological advances. I’ve usually considered darkroom photography as a thing of the past. However, based on the first couple of classes, I believe I’ve begun to see some of the benefits of darkroom and hope to learn even more about other aspects of photography.
I have sat staring at a photograph for hours on end... hopelessly wishing I could see the person's face, living and breathing in front of my own. I have looked at pictures of friends that are far away and have thought, if only they could be here with me now. I have seen images of my grandfather before his cancer took over, and it reminds me of the way I would always remember him. The great grandmother I never met is the woman I see in the photograph hanging over my grandmother's fireplace. Photography can be about memory, and in such a way that it brings out strong emotions in people. It can capture a person, and represent the way we think about him or her. It can show us the person before something happened to them such as my grandfather's disease. It doesn't even need to be a physical change. We can remember a person for the way they were, rather than what they have become, and photography helps us keep that in mind. Roland Barthes may have even been attempting to say in his quote that the picture takes over the memory. Perhaps after someone has gone, all we have left is the memory of the person and of the photo. As we discussed in class, a photo like that taken in World War Two in Russia, esssentially an invented moment, can become the new memory. That is the power of photography. A face that you wish you could see in person, becomes the photograph. A loved one that has passed becomes the image you keep of him on your wall. At the very least photography can remind us of the way things were (visually) when we've forgotten for ourselves.
Sorry, I seriously could not figure out how to accept the invitation =(
One of the most beautiful aspects of photography, and any other art for that matter, is that it conveys something different to all that view it. None will perceive an artwork in quite the same way, but will draw upon their own personal experiences, emotions, and thoughts to create a meaning and an identity in the artwork that the artist may not have ever intended. The result is a wonderful interaction of thoughts and interpretations, all stemmed from one work. Robert Bresson portrays this thought perfectly, and in my opinion, is a quote that defines one of the most beautiful aspects of art.
Bresson's quote poetically states that photography can tell a viewer much about about the photographer through what is left from the frame and what is focused on. The details that are chosen to photograph say something profound about the photographer. What makes someone focus on a leaf instead of a whole tree? A whole wave instead of the jellyfish cradled in the trough? A viewer can tell so much from what a photographer chooses to shoot. What is left out of the composition and why? Photographs whisper to us about their artist in the negative space, beyond the borders and within the frame.
Roland Barthes' quote in Camera Lucida speaks to me on many levels. While the excerpt is concise, it says a lot about the power that photographs have to tell of the past, present, and future. When Barthes' says he is able to find the "truth of the face [he] had loved," I find myself able to relate to the images I've seen of friends and family over time. In my experience, photgraphs have acted as avenues for the portrayal of people through time and space. Through the agency of light, we have been given the gift of composing and advertising our own views of reality, making photography incredibly unique and intimate. This power alone is what I find so enthralling about taking photographs.
ReplyDeleteJohn Berger's excerpt from "Ways of Seeing" really speaks to me. When I take a picture, I have this hope that it will in some way capture the essence of that experience and I will then be able to share it with my friends so that they can share in that experience. However, to do this takes skill and a certain eye. As Berger says "every image embodies a way of seeing." To convey a certain feeling or aspect of an experience, one must see as the camera sees and capture only meaningful subjects. I really like this new frame of mind because now for me, photographs represent more than just point and shoot, it is an opportunity to express my view of the world. This is a more involved process but also more meaningful.
ReplyDelete“The thing that matters is not what they show but what they hide from me, and above all, what they do not suspect is within them.” – Robert Bresson
ReplyDeleteBresson’s quote discusses how the viewer judges a photograph based on his own personal experience, regardless of the photographer’s intention. Photography is the relationship between what the artist presents and the viewer’s interpretation. I like this quote because it implies that the photographer can intentionally create art, but hide from the viewer that it was a result of chance, almost as if the artist is making something out of nothing. Bresson suggests that the viewer’s interpretation is more important than understanding the artist’s reasoning for how, when, why, or where the photo was taken. This idea reminds me of a favorite photo of mine, that I purchased as a poster at the start of college. The photo shows a man leaping across a puddle with an old-time London cityscape in the background. I like the poster because it portrays an element of fun and chance in guessing whether the man is going to make it across the puddle. For the longest time I did not want any information about the photograph revealed to me because it would potentially distort the carefree meaning I attached to the photo. Then a few years later I found out the photograph was called “Flooded road” by J.A. Hampton, taken to document a flood in London. I compare the feeling of disappointment to finding out your favorite love song is written about a cat. Hampton probably did not suspect that by documenting a man trying to make it to work in a flood would invoke such a strong sense of adventure. The photographer successfully hides the true meaning of the photograph so that I, the viewer, can attach personal significance to the image.
The quote that really spoke to me was by John Berger, from "Ways of Seeing". One of my favorite things about photography is that it isn't just capturing what one can see with the naked eye; it doesn't just capture an image of a moment. Instead, it can capture what you can't see, but what you can feel. The subject's feelings can be represented, and how the photographer feels can also be represented. You are seeing a situation or a person through the photographer's eyes rather than your own- photography gives you a perspective entirely different than your own. Most of my experience with photography has been point-and-shoot with a digital camera, and it doesn't take all that much thought to merely capture the image of a moment with the quick press of a button. I hope to incorporate a deeper sense of feeling into the photography I'll be doing for class, so that the images I'm producing evoke more than the memory of how fun a particular night was. I look forward to showing others how I feel through a photo, and to helping them see what it is I'm seeing, for as Berger said, "The photographer's way of seeing is reflected in choice of subject."
ReplyDeletePhotography serves to provide a proportioned perspective, or as John Berger puts it, “Every image embodies a way of seeing.” The photographer can choose to expound his/her perspective/way of seeing, but may also satirize, refute, or construe that of others in innumerous lights. I think a general conception of the photograph is that of an unadulterated record of a real moment in time. Though, what is real is wholly up to what the photographer portrays as real. The image the photographer captures may falsify or fortify what we believe to be real. The photographer may also toy with what we consider real and offer a perspective that depicts our reality, as we perceive it, as absurd. One could also make the absurd appear completely normal. It is this paradoxical relationship between photography and reality, and its subsequent inextricable effect on consciousness that grabs my interest.
ReplyDeleteRobert Bresson’s quote on the art of photography suggests that the most important thing to him when photographing a subject is not their initial appearance, but what understanding of the can be extracted even further from them. He wants the photograph to reveal something about the subject, something that the subject wasn’t even aware of. This thing that the subject “hides” is what interests Bresson the most, and to me is the foundation of photography.
ReplyDeleteTo me photography is about revealing something special or dramatic about a subject, either a human being or inanimate object, which the viewer was unaware of. This thing could perhaps be a refreshing and enlightening perspective on a serious topic. Or it could be a human’s personality, or a subject’s beauty. It seems that by photographing a three-dimensional subject and producing a two-dimensional representation of them captures a certain quality. The photograph is literally a captured moment in time that elicits thought and emotion from the viewer. A photographer wields a certain power with the camera, and the basis of that power is his or her own unique perspective. It is thus an incredible tool for creative expression. This is why I am so attracted to photography.
Roland Barthes’ quote from Camera Lucida caused me to remember a similar situation I had had when looking through photographs of my grandmother. I had never seen many pictures of her when she was young so I was taken aback at how different she was. My frail, yet vibrant, grandmother was just a shadow of herself when she passed and looking back at the photos of her I see that time and its victims around her had been weights slowing pulling her down. When I found a picture of her when she was dating my grandfather it was like looking at a completely different person. While my grandmother was always considered the life of the party, she gave off a completely different vibe in those photos than the photos of her more recent activities. She was not a grandmother, a mother, or even a wife at the time; just a working girl who was having fun without a care or true worry in the world. I became fascinated with the person my grandmother was and was curious when I looked through the photos what experiences she must have gone through in order to become the person she was when I knew her.
ReplyDeleteBarthes’ quote just reminded me that people are constantly changing; that a person you know today is not who they were ten years ago. This is why photography is important to me; it can show who a person is at that precise moment but it can also show how time has affected the person. It is a glimpse into a past that I could never experience outside of stories but with my grandmother gone, I will always have those photographs to remind me of the person my grandmother was before she was a mother and that is something I consider priceless.
Our day to day interactions present us with images of our world. From the time we wake up each morning until we go to bed each night we are immersed in images. These images can be photographs or posters that are displayed in our homes to more rapidly moving images that are present every time we stare at the computer or turn on the television. These images are a tangible form of how we see our world. They shape the opinions we have on an issue or a problem. At the same time these images speak about the person who took them, as John Berger points out in Ways of Seeing. Berger says, “The photographer’s way of seeing is reflected in choice of subject.” This idea explains that the photographer not only chooses his or her subject, but the way he or she takes the picture includes or excludes certain framing images that provide some insight into how the photographer sees the world.
ReplyDeleteI see the truth in Berger’s words in my own photos. This summer I traveled to Greece. On this trip I encountered many beautiful landscapes that I sought to capture in order to help me describe my trip to those back home. However, no matter how far you zoom out or how many photos you take, part of the scenery or surroundings will be cut, as you personalize the photo by what most catches your eye as the photographer. Secondly, Berger points out that a photograph is not a “mechanical record”. I agree with this idea because I believe all photographs are a window that reminds us of past experiences. These experiences connect to memories that are associated with that image which prohibits the photo from being just a mechanical record as there are personal sentiments that come out.
I felt the quote from John Berger in “Ways of Seeing” really resonated with me. As a chemist, I could objectively see a photograph as essentially the reaction of a light-sensitive material to a certain amount of light based on the exposure time. Hypothetically, different photographers can capture the same physical object and call the photographs the same. This is what I felt Berger meant by a photograph as a “mechanical record”.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a photograph can be much more than the physical object. The exact image captured on the photograph changes with each photographer, and gives insight into their “way of seeing”. A photograph can capture a photographer’s subjective view of the world. This view changes from one photographer to another, depending on the subject matter, use of shading, development techniques, etc. Berger emphasizes this point by saying that a photographer is analogous to a painter. A painter takes a canvas or paper and uses paints, oils, etc. as a way of creating an image meant to either entertain or convey a deeper meaning. I can see how photography could be considered comparable.
Personally, I’ve always seen pictures at face value and have never taken the time to explore deeper meaning. I have photographs from family vacations, holidays, memorable milestones, and even the embarrassing events I’d rather forget. It’s always been through the use of a digital camera, especially with recent technological advances. I’ve usually considered darkroom photography as a thing of the past. However, based on the first couple of classes, I believe I’ve begun to see some of the benefits of darkroom and hope to learn even more about other aspects of photography.
I have sat staring at a photograph for hours on end... hopelessly wishing I could see the person's face, living and breathing in front of my own. I have looked at pictures of friends that are far away and have thought, if only they could be here with me now. I have seen images of my grandfather before his cancer took over, and it reminds me of the way I would always remember him. The great grandmother I never met is the woman I see in the photograph hanging over my grandmother's fireplace.
ReplyDeletePhotography can be about memory, and in such a way that it brings out strong emotions in people. It can capture a person, and represent the way we think about him or her. It can show us the person before something happened to them such as my grandfather's disease. It doesn't even need to be a physical change. We can remember a person for the way they were, rather than what they have become, and photography helps us keep that in mind.
Roland Barthes may have even been attempting to say in his quote that the picture takes over the memory. Perhaps after someone has gone, all we have left is the memory of the person and of the photo. As we discussed in class, a photo like that taken in World War Two in Russia, esssentially an invented moment, can become the new memory.
That is the power of photography. A face that you wish you could see in person, becomes the photograph. A loved one that has passed becomes the image you keep of him on your wall. At the very least photography can remind us of the way things were (visually) when we've forgotten for ourselves.
Sorry, I seriously could not figure out how to accept the invitation =(
One of the most beautiful aspects of photography, and any other art for that matter, is that it conveys something different to all that view it.
ReplyDeleteNone will perceive an artwork in quite the same way, but will draw upon their own personal experiences, emotions, and thoughts to create a meaning and an identity in the artwork that the artist may not have ever intended.
The result is a wonderful interaction of thoughts and interpretations, all stemmed from one work. Robert Bresson portrays this thought perfectly, and in my opinion, is a quote that defines one of the most beautiful aspects of art.
Bresson's quote poetically states that photography can tell a viewer much about about the photographer through what is left from the frame and what is focused on. The details that are chosen to photograph say something profound about the photographer. What makes someone focus on a leaf instead of a whole tree? A whole wave instead of the jellyfish cradled in the trough? A viewer can tell so much from what a photographer chooses to shoot. What is left out of the composition and why? Photographs whisper to us about their artist in the negative space, beyond the borders and within the frame.
ReplyDelete