Photography: The Key Concepts by David Bate

                                                              

Lately I've been reading a lot more about the history of photography which has led me to explore photographic theory in more detail.  This is something I haven't dedicated enough time to in the past which may be down to the fact I found it difficult to understand.  However, this book makes it easier to get to grips with.

Bate's explores the the place photography has in our society examining the amazing number of genres in the medium.  He briefly outlines the history of photography although I found Badger's book a better read for historical perspective.

The explanations of the different bodies of theory on photography are introduced by Bate in a way I found easy to understand.  He guides you through documentary, still life, landscape and global photography.  Perhaps my knowledge in these areas had already improved hence it being easier to appreciate.  

In this post I will focus on the chapters of the book that are particularly relevant to this course - People and Place - and what I have learnt that will improve my work in this genre.

Photographic theory
I particularly enjoyed getting my head around the history of photographic theory.  I have tried on several occasions to make sense of it all but have until now failed miserably.  I feel that I had to have reached a certain point in my photography to be able to take this on board and learn from it.

What I have learnt about theory:

• Theory is essential to all apsects of photographic practice
• Photography has a visual language with its very own set of codes
• Reality is what we believe exists but realism is the mode of representation that supports that reality.  
• Semiotics makes a distinction between the photographic signifier (the photograph) and the signified or concept.  Photographs require a viewer to give a signified meaning to the image. 

I found it particularly interesting to learn more about realism.  Is it strange that even though I know there is more to a photograph that I still have the expectation that it is the same as reality?  I suppose it is hard to dispel a common myth that has been instilled in you since childhood.

Questions the book poses in relation to theory that has given me food for thought

• How do photograph achieve meaning?
• Are codes and conventions important?

Documentary
As it is with realism, people believe that documentary photography is real too.  It is mistakenly believed to document real events or occurrences.  As viewers we are very much at the mercy of the photographer as he or she decides what we see and what information we are allowed to have from the scene to view.

I found Bate's chapter on documentary informative. Although I have read a lot about narrative in the past I think I now have a stronger interpretation of it and how it can be applied to my work.  Or perhaps what I should be looking for when I view documentary photographers work.

I have long been familiar with the decisive moment but I never thought about it as peripateia - the moment where the future of the story will be determined the moment of anticipation when the story is in the process of being decided.  I suppose I can really see this in the work of war photography.  However, in the every day aspects of life peripateia does not have the same resonance.

Subjective and objective documentary work was a new concept the book introduced to me.  When you think about it makes sense that there is two different strands of documentary work and that both have a different effect on the way the narrative unfolds.

What I have learnt about documentary

• The motivation for documentary photography is to creatively inform its viewers about another part of the population whose life and experiences may be unfamiliar to them.  
• The aim of documentary work may to criticise, celebrate, support or attempt to reform or change a situation they depict. 
• Documentary photographers use different tactics from tripod based views to hand-held tableaux scenes.  These create distinct viewer positions usually perceived as either an objective or subjective position. 

Tripod photography very much focuses on the informational codes of the scene while shutter photography looks at the fleeting moments of everyday life.  Subjective photographs laid the way for reportage.  

Reportage derived from the snapshot.  It has a greater expressive quality as it is subjective in both its mode of production and its visual connotations.  

Questions the book poses in relation to documentary that has given me food for thought

• What is the difference between a photograph as document and social documentary?  Is there one?
• Can one picture tell a complex story?  Do you need several pictures to complete a narrative?
• Is the 'decisive moment' as coined by Cartier Bresson about freezing time or triggering an implied narrative?
• What kind of stories do documentary photographers tell?

Portraiture

Again I have read a lot on portraiture especially for this course.  However the book introduced new ways of looking at the genre for me.  For starters it refers to the elements of portraiture: face, pose, clothes and location or setting.  It is interesting to see what each of the elements adds to the photograph.  Each element tells us something different about the person the photograph depicts.  However, we still are left at times to fill in blanks often deliberately left by the camera operator.

When we talk about reading portraits I would have thought of reading the details in front of us that the photograph tells us.  This can be referred to as the surface or appearance.  However, we automatically look at the depth or reality which adds another level of meaning to the image.  This meaning is inferred by the viewer.

I particularly found the concept of recognition interesting.  Freud wrote of repetition as being important to us as we are already seeing something we know but are rediscovering it again.  This provides us with pleasure whether it is a conscious or sub-conscious pleasure.

As viewers we encounter

• Familiar - family, friends and people we know
• Unfamiliar - strangers 
• Known representations - discursive knowledge - people that are familiar but we do not actually know them eg famous people

The known and familiar are repetitive whereas the unfamiliar are not.  In portraying the unfamiliar photographers are faced with the problem of representing the unrepresented.  This had led to innovations in portraiture. 

As viewers we derive pleasure from looking at the familiar and known.  We identify with the camera as viewer, with the person depicted, or the person depicted and with the look of the person.  

Freud wrote about narcissism and voyeurism and how we obtain pleasure from looking.  Lacan focused on the fact that we look to our mirror image (parents) to gain recognition of who we are.  Which leads to the question am I like this person?  This is what we ask when we look at portraits.  Am I like this person?  Are they like me?  We look for what we can see of ourselves in the image.  

We often project our own feelings on to an image whether they are pleasurable or uncomfortable.  

With regard to images that have blank expressions, the Mona Lisa being the most famous we are left to fill in the blanks by ourselves.  Leonardo de Vinci used the sfumato technique and photographers have adopted their own soft focus blur on the face to allow viewers to project impressions onto the portraits.  This effect can be seen in the paintings of Rembrandt and the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron and Edward Steichen.  

Questions the book poses in relation to the porttrait that has given me food for thought

• What can we learn from a portrait?
• Does portraiture idealise, describe or criticise a sitter? 
• Can the pose be a type of defence?
• Why is portraiture so popular?
• What does the human face reveal about character if anything?

Overall I found this book very informative and easy to digest.  It has enabled me to think more about my role as photographer in the images that I take. It has reinforced that I as the photographer tell the story of the person I am photographing and how he/she is seen by the spectators.

This book is an essential read for anyone wishing to learn more about photography in relation to society and its effects on our world.