Discussion #1

Written by catiamitchelll

Discussion #1

new terms:

  • tendentious
  • rudimentary
  • quasi formalist
  • heliography
  • polysemic

this reading speaks a lot about the meaning behind the photographer and the photo being taken how the ideas have derived and how they can be connected. it goes on to say how every image is a sign and the sending of a a message this idea made sense to me because I often look at things that way. It questions the meaning of photographs and how it is decided of its quality whether it be the narrative or visual aspects and how each one is weighed with different importances. 

something I found very interesting was the discussion about the bush woman and the snap shot of her son. How it discusses how the image is a “nonmessage” until its frame lingsuitically. I never thought of photographic literacy as being something that needed to be learnt since I have been surronded by photography as long as I can remember. I also find the phrase “unmediated copy of the real world”, to be very thought provoking it made e question the way photography can be seen by others.  Something else that is very interesting is the discussion on how someone can see the photograph of just being an arrangement of tones in a bounded field. I like how both sides of photography were discussed.  I also find the discussion on Lewis Hine to be quite interesting since I did not know much about him before this reading. A question I have is; is there a way to connect different theories on photography that were discussed all through out this ready and see if they could come together.