Semiotics

Semiotics is the process given to the study of signs and symbols which both on its own is called semiosis, depicting the communication bond between symbols and signs. It's what we feel hear and/or see.

Framing a female showing only her nose up till her waist wearing nothing but a bra, communicates with men easily rather women. She poses seductively and confidently luring someone in with her pouted lips, the cut of identity of the whole image leaves the men wanting to see more and so spend more time looking at the ad keeping the subject of the advertisement in the middle in between everything that’s happening around it making it impossible to just look past it.

‘Picture Perfect’ is written in big font referring to the whole picture which has been taken by the camera phone in the ad. Underneath the big is a small font text which says ’...whatever the size’ now referring to something sexual as it has been written just underneath the models right breast.

If this wasn’t intended to be sexual first of all they wouldn’t have had a female with just a bra on and secondly they would not have written and placed ‘picture perfect...whatever the size’ where they have but could have placed it somewhere else. So what this advertisement is trying to tell us is that the aimed audience for this advertisement or phone are men or boys

• http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.adsneeze.com/files/media/sony-ericsson-fhm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.adsneeze.com/electronics/sony-ericssons-innovative-ad-campaign&usg=__1zHoiAKScCi1_Iligy8DrtsyG5w=&h=1024&w=751&sz=262&hl=en&start=27&itbs=1&tbnid=49ZqbpirEkMCUM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsony%2Bericsson%2Badvertisement%26start%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1

Modernism and post modernism

Photography is a modern form of image making, contributing to the development of modernism. Modernist photography captures the essence of today’s going on, images with the modern thoughts entrusted into them, along with the modern character sensed in the images. Not a lot of rule breaking, not a lot of playing about with the image, in a way just presented the way it was captured.

Ansel adam a photographer, I would describe as being a modernist photographer as his images of landscapes are just that, landscapes taken at different shots and places, just mostly presented in black and white images. This is quite the thinking of not just photographers but all modernism designers and thinkers. Two of his landscape shots below

Post modernism or the post modernist theory, originally originated from an architectural movement, and was meant to be a criticism towards the dominance of modernism, to challenge the modern concepts and views. Post modernist photographers take a more creative approach to photography, differently composed, different looking photographs of mundane images, then art work them with edgy effects and other utensils, the signs and symbols in the images are allocated in different position and not in conjunctions with those of modernist photography, post modernist photographers reject the rule and said to display more dispassionate images rather than heartfelt ones done by modernist.

Gregory Scott, Is a Painter and post modernist Photographer, He started off as a painter then became a photogrpaher, it was only natural that he connected the two, as you can see from the image below, he rejected the rules and composed the image differently like all post modernist photographers. He calls it ‘Flip Side’(2004).

http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/0038Ff
http://www.photographymuseum.com/modernism1.html
http://nicooved.com/words/postmodernism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=gregory%20scott%20photography&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
http://www.mocp.org/collections/mpp/scott_gregory.php
http://www.anseladams.com/

Feminism

The study of a photograph is very simple but as soon as a presence of feminism gets involved then this presents a tough challenge as the link between the medium and a political group doesn’t no longer become a simple visual to study. Female photographers in the past have not been as much successful as male photographers, being disregarded for their work and not being recognised for their achievements, meaning not enough females have had their work included in the history of photography. They have struggles to establish themselves on the platform of photography and present their own vision of their views on the world through their work. For a women to be recognised as a serious photographer and be placed in the history books, they have to study closely other women’s photography and how they created the image, what’s the image about and what’s if anything is new about it.

An example of this is the work of Grace Robertson, who has gathered a talent in picture story collaborating of child birth, child rearing and working mothers into the view of the public.

Another female photographer who attempted to defy feminism was Laura mulvey. From 1970s to 1980s made a change in the context and photographic representation in order to develop realistic images of women. An example of this is Hackney’s flashers photography collection which portrayed Women’s invisible labour in London, Hackney.

However now women photographers have made it big and and are being placed into the history of photography such as Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibovitz, Sam Taylor-Wood, Nan Goldin, Eileen Perrier and many more.

• Feminist Visual Culture

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus is a photographer who likes to observe. Arbus mostly seems to observe the person and the area in which the person may be. The appearance of someone may lead another person to think of them in a certain way. But there comes a point in which you want people to stop learning about you and then there's those things that you cant help people from knowing about you. Diane Arbus calls this the gap between intention and effect. Arbus doesn't really like taking images of what most photographers would, she would rather stay away from the common waves of photographers which are all commonly used, edited and/or worked on before actually being published. She prefers to not hide any facts and not hide what she is photographing really looks like. This lead to her interest in photographing social challenged people or more commonly known as freaks, people that reminded her of a people in fairy tales who would stop you and ask you to figure out something confusing. She has never taken a picture that she has intended meaning her images either came out worse than she expected or better than she expected.

• http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZC4wjUN1oNYncShu4lAXcRmQfigI7eYdXVvcRZO-gPxWA0ebmKSePoUS5iJqGy8vd7vmEZqf5GqtVyzklqaJeBi-PjjH1n5XeOeIuhN8Kov9K4Zkd15HnrXUAdi_rkcQdVozH5MZyaQWL/s400/diane_arbus_17.jpg&imgrefurl=http://drinkinanddronin.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/diane-arbus/&h=383&w=383&sz=25&tbnid=YfMk0rFDs_BGkM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDiane%2BArbus&hl=en&usg=__evrjpUh3TeG2qQHy-n5va4FnI9g=&ei=kJn6S4_bLMGV4gbk_NQI&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CB8Q9QEwAg
• Diane Arbus-An Aperture Monograph (book)

Gustave Cailliebotte

This painting 'Paris Street: A Rainy Day' was created in 1877 by Gustave Caillebotte. Caillebotte has painted these compositions very much the same as a composition you would see in a landscape photograph. In a photograph its easier to pick out the foreground, middleground and the background, however Caillebotte has done this for us in his painting by placing a lampost just behind the couple which helps seperate the foreground from the middle and then he paints the horizon line just after the three men holding umbrellas crossing over which helps to seperate the middle from the background. Another thing that is seen in this painting that would be seen in a photograph is the depth of field. The focus in this image has been kept on the people holding the umbrellas just after the couple in the front who are somewhat a little blurry. Beyond the men that have been kept in focus then slowly start to blur as you go into the background painting the image as if looking through the camera lens. The perspectives in this image have also been painted just as it would be captured in a photograph allowing the viewer to feel involved in the painting allowing them to feel as if they are or were there and they them selves have taken this photo.

• http://www.artyfactory.com/perspective_drawing/perspective_11.htm
• http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_4.shtml
• http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chicagomag.com/images/2007/April%25202007/411_parisstreet_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/April-2007/The-Annotated-Paris-Street-Rainy-Day/&usg=__bze9dqDmDJyHHdunDBuAjEApgqs=&h=386&w=500&sz=122&hl=en&start=7&sig2=x92GJbEbB9JKQ0SY9wqCMA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xmTjK0H8jUfo9M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dparis%2Bstreet%2Ba%2Brainy%2Bday%2Bcomposition%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1G1SMSN_ENUK374%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=s4f6S9XaEsWe_gaygIXDCg

Susan Sontag

Born in New York on 16 January 1933 and grown up in Tucson, Arizona Susan Sontag is a leading critic, novelist and film maker. Susan Sontag wrote a book on photography called 'On Photography' in 1979. Her book is about problems within aesthetic and morals about modern photography and the relationship of photography to art based upon reality and knowledge. The book tells the reader that the camera captures ones awareness of a subject that is being photographed allowing them to feel knowledgeable and as a result seeming powerful. People isolated by words are blind to the fact that knowledge can be gained from photographs too, as the world has been doing to gain knowledge about how the past is and how it looked and how the future is going to be like that is yet still to come. However these photographs are not story or description of the world they are just bits and pieces of reality that can be obtained by anyone. These photographs that people can gain knowledge from are hanged in places as a piece of art which are then bought and sold and can be played around with mucking around with the reality of the world.

• http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/index.shtml
• On Photography, Susan Sontag (book)

Nan Goldin

American photographer Nan Goldin relates many of her pictures with life, real life, her life and what she has been through expressing her emotions through pictures and showing the world what se has had to put up with throughout her life. Having gone through so many lows in life one would have a break down but Goldin has kept herself together by the use of photography expressing her feelings using images almost like a diary. Studying Goldin has made me realise that her work and personal life is one life rather than two different live's which is why some may not see Goldin as a photographer. However looking at Goldin's work all her images look very intimate, saturated with artificial lighting making the mood of the scene stronger. Her images also portray an identity crisis,she looks at her images like a mirror as to reflect upon herself and what she sees. She works within personal spaces again which helps to link back to her. This image above 'Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, nyc' The glamorous drag queens above are Goldins friends who she lived with and Goldin was Bisexual and so while Goldin wasn't in any relationship they helped each other in their times of sexual needs.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEk
• http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/fineman/fineman12-12-96.asp
• http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thedragnet.org/stuff/nan_02.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thedragnet.org/blog/musings/nan.html&usg=__LvMwCdRZyo6jSkEQhjSofmNGuWQ=&h=338&w=500&sz=45&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=kj2YC4ymeqD9MM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnan%2Bgoldin%2Bdrag%2Bqueen%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1G1SMSN_ENUK377%26tbs%3Disch:1

AsianA Magazine

Asiana is a marvellous Asian magazine which shows beautiful eastern cultural clothing, however the aimed audience is not only Asian people but people from eastern and western cultures. So this magazine has decided to provide their audience with a combination of the two cultures. With the influence of one of the Asiana magazine covers the picture above is a magazine cover that I have created for one of my projects. Now to help show Asiana's aimed audience I have used my model and the clothes she is wearing to illustrate this, my model is wearing an Asian party dress and although some have said my model may look Asian she is actually Colombian. Red and gold in the Asian culture are seen as rich, luxury colours which is why I chose to use those colours on the front of the magazine to portray this magazine as luxury. In the picture below I have illustrated the aimed audience by using a mixed race model wearing a combination of the eastern and western clothing. However to focus on the subject of this magazine which is Asian clothes I have made my model stand and pose in a position which allows the bottoms to be in front of the body allowing it to stand out.

Philip Lorcia diCorcia

Philip Lorcia diCorcia an American artist became involved in the world of photography as a photographer in the 70's and by the late 80's he was famously known for planning his daily life scenes before taking pictures working as a conceptual photographer as each image he created was thought about, giving it a concept. diCorcia uses people as his subject using members of his family, friends and the public allowing them to enter his world of photography. One of diCorcia's photo series that really interest me is Hollywood 1990-1992. Looking at these images as a series and even their titles clearly show that they have been thought about well and have a narrative. diCorcia tries to express the relationship between the twilight and these people that are awake at that time and naming the images the models name and how much they have been paid to pose. diCorcia approached male prostitutes, drifters and drug addicts at twilight asking them how much they would charge and paying them for their time and then took them to an area in which diCorcia had set up the scene before hand. In this image diCorcia shows a topless male in front of a cafe out at a time in which could be just before the darkness hits the streets or just before day light at which both points is a dangerous time to be out. diCorcia's concept behind these series is to show how bodies can be used at a price.

.http://www.artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1997/Articles1097/PdiCorciaA.html
.http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hsct101/pages/dicorcia01.html
.http://faculty.cua.edu/johnsong/hsct101/pages/dicorcia02.html
.The Photograph As Contemporary Art by Charlotte Cotton

Cindy Sherman

Sherman is known as one of the most valued photographers in the twentieth century. She is most known for her series of Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980). But after this series for most of her film stills Cindy Sherman has posed for them her self. However these photos will not be seen as self portraits as she is in character playing a part of life of someone else. The simple reason for this is that she wanted to work alone giving her power and controlled situations in her studio. Sherman's images are expressionless making the viewer think about what could be happening around the model in the scene, although they are expressionless you can pick out the themes being illustrated by looking at the lighting, the posture and the props. Sherman decided to make her images expressionless as this was not common to see in the films but strong expressions were seen every where.

The image above called The crying girl (#27) is one of Cindy Shermans images that have the most expression but with a blank face, looking like she has just finished crying. Her eyes give away the expression however the face is yet blank.

.The Complete Untitled Film Stills, Cindy Sherman (book)
.http://www.filmsofevillights.org/blog_images/Sherman_UntitledFilmStill27_1979.jpg
.http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://unstills.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/sherman_untitled_1531.jpg&imgrefurl=http://unstills.com/2008/02/16/about-and-not-about-cindy-sherman/&h=400&w=287&sz=128&tbnid=K2E1eE02pEb2aM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcindy%2Bsherman%2Bphotography&hl=en&usg=__biSliiutwlT7ixRwxH8lYNHIRAE=&ei=8VLLS9mBB5fp-Ab2tMSDBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=8&ct=image&ved=0CBYQ9QEwBw

Where Three Dreams Cross

This was an exhibition consisting of images from the 1860s up till the present produced by 82 and practitioners born locally in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The images explore culture and modernity allowing others to see development in the Indian subcontinent by using different forms of photography like journalism, documntary, experimental contemporary photography and portrait, focusing on family, street, schools, politics, global warming, performance and entertainment and the golden age of Bollywood and the Pakistani film industry known as Lollywood in the 1940s-50s, engaging with the idea of pretending to be someone else.

One of the series I liked was the Bombay Photo Studio Navarasa Suite created by Pushpamala. N. in 2002-03. This was a series of nine images consisting Pushpamala herself like Cindy Sherman playing different roles from the innocent to dangerous, peacemaker to rioter, abused to abuser lover to hater, happy to unhappy. Looking furtherin into Bollywood and Lollywood; the modernity of the images could be seen just by looking at the colours of the image, the relationship and positioning between the people.

Several images produced by Prabinddhe Dasgupta made me think what they were about as they were full of suspense created by zooming into one subject whilst paying attention to another subject in the image.

• White Chappel Gallery

Sam Taylor-Wood

Sam Taylor Wood born in 1967, is an English photographer and a film and video artist. Taylor-Woods photography mainly portrays sexually confrontational and challenging roles. ‘Killing Time’ was one of Taylor-Woods first film which was created in 1994, it’s about being alive and being boring as Michael Bracewell says . This was a project of four screens which showed 4 people miming an opera piece called libretto. As each person stops miming and are waiting to mime they show boredom which portrays unease and points out how we use self expression to show others how we feel. In 1995 she made the first series of colour photographs using a long rotating camera to create a panoramic view. The images showed isolation and boredom again creating unease. In this piece of work a cinematic theme came through and combined with art photography which represented her work through the 1990s.

The image shown above is a self portrait created by Taylor-Wood whilst experimenting with weight and gravity in 2005 and is known as Bram Stoker’s Chair VII. It makes us think how she has managed to make the objects float; using editing skills and such great energy for posture has created an interesting image. Taylor-wood has managed to create many photographs consisting of floating objects allowing them to look innocent and fairy tale and fantasy like.

.http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorkscgroupid=999999961&artistid=2595&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=bio

.http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/sam_taylor_wood
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor-Wood
.http://www.whitecube.com/artists/taylorwood/
.http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/images/width370/sam-taylor-wood-bram-stokers-chair-vii-2005-a3-1337.jpg
.http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/frontrow/hoardings/samTaylorWood.jpg