Seminar 3: Theorising Photography

During today's seminar, we focused on a short extract from john Berger's Ways of Seeing (chapter 1). After reading the extract, we worked in small groups to answer five questions. My group response is below with the questions asked.

1. In what ways does photography change human perception? Photography changes human perception as you are able to view the photograph with how the photographer wants you to see it. The photographer controls what the viewers can and can not see within the photograph which can distort a situation or scene. Photography also allows viewers to see objects up close, far away, and/or from the past.
2. How does the ability to make copies affect the way we view art works? Having the ability to copy art enables people from all over the world to view art that can only be seen when travelling. Without the ability to copy art, many of us would not know what the Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci), The Birth of Venus (Sandro Botticelli), or The Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dali) looks like. Having a copy means that we can view these paintings, along with many other art works, through books, magazines, or online. There are some benefits and drawbacks of having the ability to make copies.
3. What do you think are the benefits of reproducing art works?As mentioned in question 2, having the ability to access specific art works all over the world is a main benefit. Another is people's interests in art goes up, as you can view it all. People can also save their own copy as a personal memory of their favourite pieces of art.
4. What might be some of the drawbacks? People may not visit galleries in different countries to view certain art works as they have already seen it elsewhere. it takes away the experience of seeing the real piece with their own eyes. Another drawback is that people make copies but change things about the work which leads people to viewing the wrong piece. When image searching online, there are multiple versions of art works that all claim to be the 'real' looking copy. 
5. How are Benjamins (and Berger's) ideas about the reproduction of images relevant to our contemporary image culture? In the modern day society, hundreds of thousands of images are uploaded online, often the same version repeated. The ideas are very key as it is happening every day and not even with art works. Cities and countries are being photographed and uploaded from smart phones, each time with a different filter or edit. The reproduction is occurring everyday and the ideas from Benjamin and Berger are still key and relevant in 2017 and will be for many years to come.

These are the answers that I/we gave to the questions we were given after reading the extract. It was a recap on the previous two lectures on theory of photography.

Seminar 2: Subjects and Objects

During today's seminar we had to bring in two photographs, one of a man and one of a woman. We were to then answer the questions we were given regarding John Berger.

Part 1 - The Gendered Image - John Berger

• What distinguishes the presentation of the man and woman in each image? What distingusihing difference between the man and woman are that the male is fully clothed looking straight at the camera whereas the female is in her underwear and a small top that reveals her underboob and she is looking towards the camera. 
•  Describe what you see, referring to Berger's ideas about how the model is presented and the likely viewer of the image. As the magazine is GQ, a male's magazine, both photographs are aimed at males. The way the male is stood and what he is wearing it referneces to Berger's idea of what a male can do to you, the viewer, and the female has reference to Berger's looking at how she is being watched and how she wants to be viewed to the ideal viewer, a male.
• Are there examples which seem to subvert Berger's claims? if so, how? Yes, this is due to the clothing they have one - the female being in a small amount of clothes and showing her body off. 

For part two, we had to watch two short films about Bruce Gilden and Bruce Davidson.

Part 2 - 'Taking' photographs - Susan Sontag

• What contrasts are there between the way the two photographers work? A main contrast between Gilden and Davidson is how the approach people. Golden goes up to people with the camera in their face, so unexpectedly whereas Davidson gains their trust and works with them. 
• What ideas about photography are suggested by the way they approach their subjects? Within the films, you get to see how confident Bruce Gilden is with people, walking up to them and getting in their face. This suggests that he is a confident, cocky person whereas you have Bruce Davidson who can work with a variety of people but he did not like working with poverty then seeing models advertising objects that cost money. This suggests he is a calm and knowledge man.