Semiotics

The word semiotics meant nothing to me until i found out it was the study of signs, a code that helps us communicate. Signs are used in a variety of ways such as words, gestures, architecture and even photography. For example we associate a lily with death and a rose with love. So what about a black rose? Would we assume that love is dying?  If someone is photographed in soft light we would generally assume that the person is sensitive or emotional and harsh light with high contrasts of shadow speaks for itself. A good example of this is Anna Gaskell's work.
 


 

How you interpret an image depends on your background and your culture. When I saw this image I thought that it was of a woman who had entered a beauty pageant, mainly because of the banner that goes over her shoulder and the way she appears. The man makes it look as if they could have been prom king and queen. So I was surprised to find out that they are in fact Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel Westling of Sweden. This just proves how we see something and interpret it completely different to someone else. I’m sure there would be plenty of other people who would have said something different to me where either they guess the right answer or not. My judgement was on what I see on TV and in the media.

http://www.crhfoto.co.uk/crh/semiotics.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/rhethtml/signifiers/sigsave.html

Cindy Sherman

 

I have looked at Cindy Shermans Horror pictures which are grotesque representations of metamorphoses and dislocations of the human body. The horrifying theatrical masks have a surrealist quality. And These set of images are so different from her other works but she still draws me in; I’m intrigued to the thoughts that go on in her head when she’s coming up with her ideas.

‘There’s a shift in conception from the real understood in post structuralist terms as an effect of representation, to the real understood in psychoanalytic terms as an event of trauma.’

It was once said that the eye takes a photo at the moment of death, preserving on its retina the deceased’s final instant vision. Efforts have been made to recover these images which if possible would be perfect to catch killers. Maybe this is why victim’s eyeballs are destroyed or killed from behind, in darkness or while wearing a mask. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho the camera focuses on the woman’s eye as she lies on the bathroom floor.

Cindy Sherman says that the close ups of masked faces are run up to the film. She uses fanciful characters with ambiguous identity. She also says that horror movies are like rehearsals or preparations for the worst that can happen. It allows us to experience an ultimate moment of vision.

http://themorbidimagination.com/art/cindy-shermans-smiling-horrors/

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore, an American photographer, born October 8 1947 best known for his dead pan images of American ‘on the road’ landscapes. He started off using black and white photography and ended up a pioneer for colour photography.

He developed an interest in photography when he was as young as eight. He began using a 35 mm camera shortly after receiving a darkroom kit. His great influence came from a Walker Evans book called American photographs. By the age of fourteen he had already sold three of his prints to Edward Steichen, Curator of photography at the Museum of modern art.  At the age of seventeen he was photographing Andy Warhol and other artists. And by the age of twenty four he became the second living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of art. His work has influenced many photographers such as Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Martin Parr, Joel Sternfeld and Thomas Struth. His work, like a painting is considered to be a work of art.

When you look at his images you’ll see that they are visually perfect. The color is perfect. Framing is perfect and you can see that a lot of consideration has been taken to make sure that everything that is in the shot is there for a reason.

http://www.phaidon.co.uk/agenda/photography/video/2010/september/01/being-stephen-shore/

http://seesawmagazine.com/shore_pages/shore_interview.html

August Sander 'In Focus'

German photographer, August Sander, born 17 November 1876, spent more than four decades documenting the German people during the aftermath of the war. This was a period of great social, political and cultural uproar. He was described as the most important German portrait photographer of the twentieth century. He joined the ‘Group of Progressive artists’the society of the Weimar Republic in a series of portraits.  The portraits consist of all different types of people such as the farmer, tradesmen,artists, women, different classes, homeless and veterans. The people in his work are always against a simple background. Their clothes, gesture,  hair style ect are the clues as to who they are and what their profession is. I find his work really touching. There’s something about his portraits that makes me sympathise with the people. Sometimes it’s something as simple as their facial expression that does it.

I love this image. It makes mme wonder how the child has stayed on the bike. It touches me seeing the dog looking up at the camera as if it's seen someone and is being  protective over the baby. 

 This girl is in a carnival but what affects me about this picture is how unhappy she is. The framing tells me that she wants to escape.

http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=514seumIn
 In Focus, August Sander, The J. Paul Getty Museum

John Stezaker 'A Retrospective'

John Stezaker recently exibited his work at the Whitechapel Gallery.  His work combines old film stills and vintage postcards which are collaged together  to create a new surreal image with a new meaning. Rather than a photographer i consider him an artist. As an artist i consider his work to not only be interesting to look at but it's very cleverly put together. Whilst looking at his exhibition i found that  i started thinking about the meaning on a much deeper level, a level that you wouldn't have gone to with the original image. The titles of the works are very simple and are the starting point of my thoughts as to what the picture is trying to say. I think that John Stezaker wants to deliberatly ambiguou. The images speak for themselves as there are obvious themes of marriage and male and female roles.



My favourite images are the ones that combine head shots with landscapes. It makes me look through the faces to what lies beyond almost like a layer of them has been taken away and this is what is being revealed to us. This man looks like he has nothing. Does this mean his life is empty? Is he living in a world of darkness that he can't escape. The truth is we don't know. We are left to keep guessing and speculate which is the beauty of it. http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art348600
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stezaker