Modernism and postmodernism, relations with photography/art

Modernism and postmodernism...

Modernism became a huge factor in social change and the divide between the lower class and Upper class of the social divide. The modernist art era allowed for new and strange art and photography, and allowed people to experiment outside the box of paint and photographs. The basic idea of Modernism came about that the more traditional art, photography, paintings etc... were no longer interesting to the viewer and artist and photographers wanted a change in the way in which art and photography is used and made to relate to the real issues and debates of the world. Banksy, a world famous grafitti artist, uses has very political and outspoken grafitti tags in various places around the world to make bold statements about the world and to relate to a changing audience of art.

In this graffiti tag made by Banksy, he is using the subject of CCTV and is making a bold statement about the use of CCTV around the UK on every street corner 'a big brother' nation where there is no where we can go to without being on CCTV. The CCTV camera to the right of the photograph and the child seeming to be defacing the wall, adds to the modernist humour which Banksy who is always quick to make his audience laugh as well as making bold statements.

In this similar graffiti tag which Banksy has made, he is again making a bold statement about how our nation is all under survalliance and what the viewers response is to CCTV, he has used similar text to get across to the nation. This use of modernism art expresses the feelings of what the viewer wants to see and is reinventing the ideas which the audience have on their mind and can relate too, other pictures by him create large disturbance in some cases but Banksy allows for a humour-us factor mainly, to put points across about what is wanted by an audience.

In the modernism era, the art movement became very abstract based and tried to move as far from Traditional paintings as possible, this was because there was a new audience which wanted a creative genre of art in it's viewings. In this new age of abstract art, many artists were now able to draw from the mind and create some very sereal paintings which no viewer could possibly explain. For example, Pollock Jackson painting 'Stenographic Figure' gives a very abstract approach today art and paintings, and once read into how he paints can see he has changed the way he paints to suit the 20th century modernist society.

The modern era also introduced the defacing of paintings, city walls, city floors ect. Giving new photographers etc to try new kind of photographs. Once image image by Banksy, this to he has actually defaced an artists painting and created it his own, Banksy has defaced alot of paintings, for exanple this painting defaced my banksy shwos the kind of changes he make.

"Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody"(1). Post modernism deny s any efforts in society to try and define how and where we were made or how anything works or on earth is sourced. It is very hard to define the difference when it come to modern and post modern art and although an explanation of Big Ideas could be the result of the post modernism era, where artists were trying to create their own big ideas, moving away from Science ideas etc to create their own feelings of the world. Once again the post modern era contained a lot of abstract art but also allowed for the much more traditional style paintings of using lines and subjects etc. The post modern photography era, involved alot of idea based photographs, were thought and time was put into these prints.

This photograph by Von Hausswolff's 1993 colour from her 'Back to Nature' series shows a big idea about rape and what we see on the television and involves more of a thinking process for the viewer when viewing the photograph as they have to work out why the photographer as photographed a woman lying on the swamp like this naked, it relates to post modernism as using big ideas.

The conclusion which i can make from Modernism and post modernism is a very confusing one in that modernism is the idea of a new art form, and the audience getting bored of the more traditional paintings, art and photography etc. Modernism creating new and inventive art to relate to the viewer. In similar to this, post modernism as it seems when i have researched it is more about making big ideas to allow for denial of any process being an action to how the earth works etc.

Photography in the past and present day...

Photography in the past and present day...

Back in Lecture 6 of this module, we learnt about what photography is and how it is used in everyday living and how it effects our lives, and also how it is used in the industry of work and advertisement to promote ideas and products. Since the invention of photography through personal photography, to commercial photography, to press photography, the use of this media has in some aspects changed the way we view the world, a photograph taken can effect a single person or single handedly shock the hole world. An image can circulate around the web in seconds, and once an image is on the web, this can never be removed and sometimes causes many controvisy.

This photograph of a falling man from the 911 attack in America caused much upset and disturbance around the internet and effected the 911 witnesses or family members of which had victims die in the attack. "In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.(1)" - This quote taken from a article on-line which reviews the image and goes into great detail about the background of this photograph, shows how much pain this photographed caused to people, many wanted this photographed banished from the internet but because no photograph can ever be removed completely, this photograph still circulates the web.

(1) - http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN

This photograph which I have found on the internet has personally shocked me, these photographs show the viewer of how the Germans treated the Jews in the concentrations camps and caused much stir and disgust within the internet of the circulation of this image. It shows the viewer of the power and strength of the German leader Hitler and the capabilities which he was able to do to the Jews, showing a wide Social change for the jews who were taken into to poverty and starvation by Hitler and killed. This photograph is taken at 'Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany'. "Buchenwald was not, per se, an extermination camp (such as Auschwitz), but prisoners were starved, maltreated, and worked to death in the camp quarry and adjacent armaments factories.(2)" The concentration camp was used to starve, and kill the jews, not intentionally but was a way of making them work until they died, this photo and other shocking photographs from the Jews extermination ment that family members who had victims from the concentration camps killed from their family had to look at these shocking photographs and the photos were not removed from the internet.

(2) - http://www.redcafe.net/f8/photos-shook-world-222981/index7.html

 “Photography involved in maintaining social class hierarchies through delineation, of for instance, prisoners or the poor, colonial travellers………. Political and ideological implications of using photography to define social types viewed as different or OTHER.(2)" Photography can become a big impact when different types of social classes are photographed, the varied amount of photographs which photographers take show an increasing amount of social difference and change within the world. The world is fast separating the divide between poverty, working class and middle/upper class and a photograph can relate to this. These two photographs represent the difference between the rich and poor scale, the cityscape to the right shows a rich town and a poor town becoming divided by one fence.

(2)John Tagg - http://www.studynet1.herts.ac.uk/crs/10/4MMF00010910.nsf/

                                                  Teaching+Documents/4B22A37A4A3B1522802577D5003CCDCF/$FILE/6Evidence10.pdf

The use of Image manipulation in the photographer world has been apparent and visual right from the earlier stages of photography when it was only just invented. It was used in commercial business back in the 20th centery,where photos were manipulated by commercial companies who specialised in taking photos for families, the companies at many times would take two or more photographs and manipulate them together to make a family which were not at the photo-shoot together seem as though that they were in fact together as one in the photo. In this photograph which is of the Dequilla family, photographed by the company A. Werner and Sons around about the 20^th Century, the three people to the left of the photo appear to be floating in mid-air. This is because the commercial company took the portrait photograph of the single person on the right and then took the three other people from another photograph and stuck these three onto the portrait and re photographed the existing photo with the stuck on family members. This then made a full framed photograph of the Dequilla Family with Four people in the photo, which started out as only one person. 

Image manipulation is still done to the present day and does cause some questionable problems and even being arrested, advertisement photos are manipulated to appeal to the audience more, some product companies manipulate their images so that the buyers would be more attracted to these products. An example of this, which is of an advert which caused a stir in UK for many people and also was banned in the UK by Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) . This advert was banned as it portrayed a false sense of what the effects of this product could achieve when appealed onto the face. Photo shop was used on this image or another photo editing software to alter the wrinkles and also the brownness and colour of the skin, most wrinkles were removed off the face of the model called twiggy from the original photo and the colour of her skin was also altered to remove her rosy cheeks and to give her an even light brown glow. Also, a vast amount of editing was made around the eyes to give the appearance that if you use this product; this is the after effect of what you can achieve.

The conclusion which i can give to this Blog and this lecture is to suggest that photography as a whole is a very important part of the lives and emotions of the world, Commercial photography needs to be used to promote products. Yet also now CCTV recordings are classed as photography, a lot of artists use this excuse of CCTV to record the public or take photos to represent how we live. 

Semiotic Analysis.

Semiotic Analysis

If we take our thoughts back to lectures 2 and 3 in Media Histories and Culture, it is apparent to remember about the use of Semiotics in methods of Analysing an image. Semiotics is the use of significations to analyse an image and what certain aspects of the image can be looked at to determine what the photographers thoughts were when he/she was taking the photograph. The two different significations which are used in semiotic analysis are Denotation and connotation, denotation is the definition and meaning of a specific sign of an image which would provoke the audience who is reading the image, connotation is the suggestion and more in-depth reading into the image as to what the denotation suggests. An immediate and simple definition of describing what a semiotic is can be read in the semiotics for beginners article by Daniel Chandler which reads "Semiotics could be anywhere. The shortest definition is that it is the study of signs.(1)" This quote is a suggestion to what a semiotic analysis is, giving a short and simple answer that it is a study of signs, and suggesting it could be anywhere, gives a simple concept that a semiotic analysis can be made from anything, either in the real world or a piece of media.
(1) - http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

A semiotic analysis in another simple term is basically decoding a sign from something to depict what the meaning of the sign is, decoding to find a meaning. Sign is suggested by the free dictionary website to be "Something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality.(2)" For example, a semiotic analysis of the cross would be, the literal meaning and denotation being the instrument which was used for the death of Jesus Christ where his hands and feet were nailed into place. The connotation of the cross would be the deeper meaning of the cross and what the cross suggests, which is that Jesus Christ was summoned by the Israelites to die on the cross although he had not done anything wrong to be punished, they were jealous of him. The Father of Jesus Christ (God) sent Jesus to die on the cross so that our sins could all be forgiven and that we can be saved, this is the suggestion which is connoted from the cross as a symbol.
(2) - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sign

Semiotic Analysis of the photograph 'Rockefeller Centre Construction site' taken by the photographer Lewis Hine.

This Semiotic analysis of Lewis Hines photograph will suggest the different signs which are apparent in the photograph and what the suggestions of these signs are and what connote. Lewis Hine was an American photographer who used his photographs as a tool to suggest how the society lived and worked in those days. This photograph which he has taken has many denotations to suggest what effect Lewis Hine was creating when he was taking the photograph to relate to his viewers. The Denotations and connotations which i have made on this photograph is as follows:

Lewis Hine - Rockfeller Construction Site

1. All male gender in photograph - All male gender gives the impression that at the time of the photo being taken, it was when it was only the males that worked and the wives worked at home as house wives, looking after children and houses.
2. Wearing overa
   lls, Tank top, work boots, Flat caps - The types of clothing which they are wearing also gives the impression that they are working, as they are wearing scruffy cloths which are dirty and also one of them is topless.
3. Holding drinks, newspaper, lighting cigarettes - The fact that they are having drinks, reading newspapers and lighting cigarettes in such a dangerous place, suggests that they are on a work break.
4. All have very brown or red skin - The colour of their skin suggests that they work long hours in the sun, outside which gives them either a very brown tan or sun burn.
5. Background of a city in the foreground, the far foreground of city is very faint from clouds - The Foreground which is in the photo, shows exactly where they are working and what type of work they are given and what type of conditions they live in.
6. The workers sitting on a large Steel construction pole - Once again the fact that the workers are sitting on a construction pole in the sky shows the danger of the jobs which they have and what extent the danger of work they will do to provide for family as jobs were limited back in those days.
7. Black and white photograph used - The black and white format which has been used for the photo shows either that the camera which was used was only black and white format or that the photographer was using this affect to show that the photo is old to show what century the photo was taken at.
8. Camera looking over workers, looking down - The camera angle which has been used for the photo gives the viewer a god like view over the workers, giving the impression that they are looking down at them with importance, as though a boss or authority.

A simple overview of this blog and what a Semiotic analysis is, is a study of the signs of an given source or situation and what the meanings are of this sign, and when connoting this meaning, is finding the suggestions which are made from this sign and how it readers to the audience, viewer or a person reading this source or situation.

First blog... Here goes

Well i think we are just over a month  into the photography course, a very different move from A level photography into a BA hons. The first lecture which i intended was a introduction to the module and what would be expected in the long run in relation to coursework and deadlines, the first lecture talked about Documentary photography project which we have to undertake in one of the modules for this course. 

The documentary course is linking well with the first few lectures which i have intended, these lectures with Stuwert Mann teach me artists which relate to Documentary photography which i have never studied this genre so it was really helpful to learn about new artists and photographers who use this genre to their advantage. I especially enjoy learning about how different situations and places can cause i very good impact and can can show such a vast social divide in some cities and towns.