We need to read photographs more like a text than simply just an image. We know this as all reading involves a complex set of meanings (problematic, ambiguous and contradictory, for example) and relationships between reader/viewer and text/image.
Photographic Discourse - The way in which a photograph achieves meaning. This is just like any other form of language and has its own conventions and histories.
'A photo is a saturated ideological context' - In this case we must be able to read it to see all of it's complexities and ambiguities.
Diane Arbus: Photos contain a photographic message and photography is a practice of signification.
We can see this a representation of our individual way with the world - a reflection of our beliefs about culture, our codes and our human values.
Images have illusory (not real) powers. We enter 'hidden' relationships when engaging with images, or in Arbus' terms take part in a photographic discourse.
Putting it into practice - Reading a Photograph
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| Identical Twins - Diane Arbus - 1967 |
If we take this image as a 'literal record' we can simply say this is a photograph of identical twins. But lets explore what we understand about the reading above.
We open up a photographic discourse by looking at the word 'identical'. This allows us to question what ideas about 'identity' are being explored in this image. While this is an image of identical twins, we can actually see a lot of differences about them; their facial expressions, their clothing, their hair. Arbus is telling us that these identical twins are actually unique individuals.
Further questioning:
The subjects have been photographed in a space/background that offers no contextualisation of when the photograph was taken (historical) or where (social). We could argue that Arbus didn't want us to attribute any more information about these twins and just to take them as the human beings as they are. The message she's telling us about human identity isn't confused by allowing us to place these girls in a social or historical context.
Why is the path at an angle behind them?
Could the photographic message be further enhanced by this choice. Could this aspect of the image be telling us that our presuppositions about identity are also askew? Maybe this seemingly imperfection about the image is what causes us to look for a deeper meaning within the picture and not just accept it's apparent 'literalness' - an image of identical twins. The meaning is conveyed through difference, not similarity.
Other Points to note on 'how to read photographs'
We must consider other images in the collections exhibited to us. Could a wider, over-arching message be conveyed to us when we take into account the photographers' other work?
We must also understand any apparent influences on the photographer whose work we are spectating. For example, Arbus was heavily influenced by the works of Wee Gee and Lisette Model.
Photographer as Auteur
"The image is as much a reflection of the 'I' of the Photographer as it is of the 'eye' of the camera."
Photographers may have a common style or repetition of particular motifs in their work. We could see this as them leaving their visual signature through a body of work allowing us to identify the images with the person that has created them. It is a mark of creative authenticity. It's important to know of any of these when seeing the work of a photographer with a stamp of authenticity, it may help us to understand any ambiguous meanings of an image.
R. Barthes - The Denotative and the Connotative
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| A Family on their Lawn one Sunday in Westchester, NY - Diane Arbus - 1968 |
Denotative: And image of a couple with a child playing a distance away in the background. The female model on the left appears to be preoccupied with sunbathing on her lounger. The male model on the right has his head in his hand. We can place this image in suburbia, it appears to be a large garden space.
Connotative: The man and woman seem to be placed symmetrically, hinting at the notion of equality between the two. The man's hand gesture makes him seem exasperated or having feelings of dread and hopelessness. This could be a reflection on 1960s society and its stereotypes; where men would go out and work and women would lead a more life of domesticity. This is further emphasised by the fact the child at the back appears closer to the mother than the father. We could read from this that the strains of this relationship mean the child isn't close to the father, perhaps. The size of the garden may tell us about the excesses of living in suburbia. Do a family of three really need this much space to do what they are doing in the image? We could say the hedges at the back of the photograph seem to close off this large space for three people, and with the child playing alone at the back it hints at a sense of loneliness.
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