Senior Seminar Reading Response # 2

Criticizing Photographs, Chapter 3

by Terry Barrett

We as photo students are in a unique position in our society, I think, in two ways. First, we recognize that photographs are subjective--as stated in the article, there are no "innocent cameras"--and as such photos are almost never as "factual" as the general population is led to believe. There are many non-photographers that also recognize this, especially in terms of Photoshop manipulation (although as pointed out in the article there are many more subtle ways a photo can be biased or manipulated). The second and more specialized way we are unique is that we not only recognize that these manipulations are common, but we have the training and knowledge to actually make them happen ourselves. That's actually a pretty powerful thing, I think. It's one thing for a cultural observer (i.e. anyone ever) to bemoan the fact that photos are taken too literally in our society; it's another to actually understand the history and workings of photography and be able to use them to your advantage. 

I really like Harry Callahan's work, and the 1947 Eleanor with her arms over her head is actually one of my favorite photographs by him. I also found that part of the article to be one of the most interesting, comparing these different views of the Eleanor photographs. I've been aware for a long time of the objectifying nature of the female in Art, most obviously the female nude, especially after watching John Berger's Ways of Seeing in my freshman year here. However I hadn't thought about it exactly in terms of these photographers, including Callahan, "capturing" and "displaying" their wives--it's a provocative statement that I haven't made my mind up about yet. 

My favorite and most inspiring or thought-provoking lines:

- "What do these (YOUR) photographs mean? What are they about?"

- "Photographs as metaphors"--this is something I've been thinking about in my work.

- Cindy Sherman: "The cultural constructions of femininity"

- Plausible or implausible, reasonable or unreasonable interpretations of work versus better or worse interpretations--put another way, informed/educated interpretations versus uninformed/uneducated

- "...subterranean content that kind of leaks out, that I don't intend…"--Sandy Skoglund