March 7 Lego Talk + Resume Submission!

All students in the School of Fine Arts are invited to attend "The Brick Just Clicked," a talk by Jeremy Brazeal, Senior Creative Manager at Lego Systems, Inc., and an alumnus of the School of Fine Arts (BFA in Studio Art: Communication Design concentration).  Mr. Brazeal will speak about  his career path and his work at Lego Systems, Inc.

The talk will take place on March 7, 2013, at 4 pm in the Arena Gallery (the “Pit”) in the lobby of the Art Building.  A reception will follow.

We ask that students register for this event by emailing Cheryl.deloreto@uconn.edu as soon as possible, but no later than noon on March 6.

Mr. Brazeal will be collecting student resumes and portfolios to review.  Please bring paper copies only.  Also, please note that Mr. Brazeal will not be conducting interviews or speaking about specific openings at Lego:  the creative departments at Lego would like to develop a better sense of who our students are across the School and may contact individuals for internships or open positions in the future.

Documentary: New Cultures, New Spaces

A dramatic change in documentary photography occurred throughout the postwar consumer boom, where documentary photographs went from having a political basis to a subjective basis. Robert Frank's The Americans offered "cool and ironic images of the fleeting moments of ordinary life". This is a huge change from the social and political movements created by photographs such as Migrant Mother. Rather than analyzing the historical context and meaning behind photographs, documentary photography began to place more emphasis on appearance rather than fact.
It makes sense that this transition into subjectively based documentary photography in the postwar period followed the politically based documentary photography of the war. The consumer boom, introducing new technology, brought to life a different kind of society, appreciating new types of art. Photographs of this time period still prompted analysis, but moreso subjective analysis towards a brighter future than analysis of what needed to be changed. This shift brought along with it the focus on  psychological and sociological interests of culture and people within these new societies, and as mentioned in the text, "more personal versions of the nature of social existence."

Digital Exhibitionism: the Digital Graveyard

I found the idea of the internet as a personal hyperlinked scrap book very interesting but some of the points Munar made were almost unsettling. With all the social media options we have available to us, people have the ability to keep an ongoing record of their lives in many different facets, whether it be personal or work related. But what will happen to all this information we are putting out there as we age? It is convenient now to be able to use facebook to recall a photo from last year's summer break; social media has redefined the linear nature of our lives, allowing us to quickly access memories we might have buried. But what will happen to all these records 20 years down the road? Will we simply keep building them larger and larger? It feels as though eventually we will reach a point where too much is too much- there simply is not enough time to constantly reflect on a scrap book that keeps growing bigger and bigger while at the same time trying to live real life in order to make MORE memories to add to that scrapbook. Personally, even though social media has its benefits, I feel that it has created a society of people who aren’t very present in the moment because they are too busy living in the digital past. There will come a time when the digital world is revolutionized once again, but what will become of our scrapbooks? The idea that Munar presented of a sort of digital graveyard is eerie but very possible.

Digital Exhibition

Ana Munar states that the new interactive web is a vehicle for the digital exposure of personal lives, which float in cyber space on different types of social networks. Through the method of Netnography, a researcher assimilates to a chosen online community or communities and through empirical observation is able to characterize the demographic. What I found particularly interesting was the idea of a realtime scrap book through which users are able to chronicle their lives, whether they are aware of it or not. As Munar states, people have documented their lives since the beginning of time. From cave paintings to journals to memoirs to blogging, the process is under a continuous state of change, but the constant is the human desire to document. 

     We are in the new age of rapidity, which is not only conveyed by the technology we use but also our mindset. People using social media sites constantly stream their thoughts into cyberspace for other people to read and cause people to be more "vocal" than they otherwise would in day to day conversation. Perhaps that is what was meant by reflexive versus reflex behavior. These quips and insights into an individuals mind are stored on the internet and create a  timeline of their information. Typically, an autobiography or memoir is written with some intent, which is why I would choose not to categorize the collection of an individuals posts to summate to such. It is simply that, a collection of thoughts.

Digital Exhibition

This article was interesting for many reasons but what I found most interesting was the topic of digital exhibition really meant. Let me explain what I mean about that. Back before computers were invented and there was internet people used to write daily in journals and make books. They also  created photo albums, once the camera was invented for the public use, to document their lives manly for the family to be passed on for records. It ties in with what Annette Kuhn was mentioning in her article that it was kept as records and pictures were intentionally taken in consideration for the future family. But now that Facebook and Twitter and many other social networking sites have popped up we no longer write in journals we simple tweet or post about our day to day adventures. But these post on the social networking sites are public and no longer private whether or not you set it to. It has turned away from reflection and into the immediate emotion. The post are less personal and more generic or passive. What the article was getting at was the immediacy of everything on the internet. I find this very interesting because in todays world that's what we expect and get. We're loosing that connection of reflection, which I am a part of too. What we can take away from looking back at old portraits or diaries is a person connection with the person compared to a scratch at the surface of our "friends" on the social media sites. And what will happen to our personal biographies we "create" online? You can't store them like a diary or album. Will our history be erased with the simple click of a button?

Digital Exhibitionism

      I chose to comment on this article because it has such an impact on most people today. So many people spend hours a week on social media websites and it is really interesting to see someone analyze the difference between the digital world and the physical world. The article focuses on most of the popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but it goes further to compare how these sites have become embedded in our lives today. For example, Facebook was first designed as a formal dating site for college students to obtain photos and contact classmates. Now there are more than 400 million Facebook members and the company is making hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
      The social media websites of today have become very complex, but the article explains certain tests and interactions that were conducted to see how people interact on these websites. I found it pretty amazing that the people running the tests could gain information by simply interacting with people online and how if there were too many or too few people interacting, it was hard to have a successful test.
      I am honestly someone who is not very fond of social media websites for some reasons that the article explains. You end up losing natural building of relationships between people if you are only using Facebook or Twitter to communicate with others. Things can be distorted in many ways when you are viewing someone's Facebook page rather then talking to them face to face. These websites can be unsafe because a lot of the time you do not know exactly who you are talking too. For example the article mentions what they call Lurker's, or people who do not participate in traditional activity, and only stalk Facebook and Twitter accounts. For me, this seems very creepy and I prefer the old fashion approach of meeting people.

Digital Exhibition Article

   When I was reading the article Digital Exhibition, I found the idea of technology causing the change from reflexive behavior to “reflex” behavior worth mentioning. I agree with the research because social media and social networking sites have changed us in becoming instant. We see something happen, we tweet about it in the same minute. We want to complain about something, we have a rant about it on Facebook.  I think that a problem some people have because of this reflex behavior is that they don't think before they post something. Just because Facebook asks "what's on your mind?" doesn't mean you have to post every little thing that's on your mind. This reflex behavior discussed in the article suggests that we don't reflect on what we think simply because we don't have the time. With everything happening so fast today we simply have to post what's going on right now. While I am in favor of the benefits of social networking and I am an avid Facebook and Twitter user, this reflex behavior is something to consider and be aware of. 

     I also thought it was unique how the article thought of social media as writing a personal biography. I never thought of my Facebook as my biography until reading this article. Now that this perspective has been introduced I am definitely going to use my Facebook differently and keeping that in mind when I post or share anything. 

Photography, Birth and Death

Before reading this section, photographing the dead is never something that I thought much about. Looking back, it seems to me that the only photographs I've seen of dead people have been gruesome images of war and crime, usually blurred by media sources. The fact that it was acceptable practice to display photographs of corpses in homes at one point in time seems absurd to me- yet the way that this practice is explained in the book gives it a much more logical explanation.
We typically take photographs to freeze a memory, to preserve a sight that we want to be reminded of. In the text, photographs are described to have deathly qualities, mainly immobility and silence. I had never looked at photography in this way before. "Photography renders the living immobile, frozen: the living person photographed may subsequently die, but remains preserved in the photograph, while the dead body photographed is 'horrible' since it is given the same 'immortality'". To me, photographs of the dead are undesirable because I'd much rather remember a person as alive than dead, but the irony that is presented in this section is extremely interesting.
Reading about the different ways in which photographers want to depict the dead was also intriguing to me. The photograph on page 203 looks like a sleeping child to me, yet knowing that it is called "The Morgue (Fatal Meningitis)" makes it disturbing to me rather than precious. A person's attitude towards or reaction to a photograph depends entirely on the relationship between that photograph and reality... which is why in my opinion, looking at a photograph of a dead person is much different than looking at a picture of a living person who is now dead.

Plagiarism Tutorial + Certificate

The following links to a tutorial and test on plagiarism. Students in the class are required to submit the certificate attesting to their successful completion of the plagiarism test with their final papers. You should choose the "non-Indiana student" testing option. Note that you must redo the test until all 10 examples are successfully answered before you can receive the certificate.

Plagiarism Tutorial + Certification Test

Annette Kuhn: Remembrance Response

In the Kuhn article I found it interesting that the daughter of the photographer Harry Kuhn wrote it. This piece discusses how even though the image had the little girl and her pet bird; it was still very much about her father. The bird was a gift from her father so he was being involved very indirectly. Kuhn also wrote about her mother in a negative manner. It was very clear that she had issues with her mother and it was apparent in the writing on back of the image. I thought it was very interesting how Kuhn mentioned the power play for her mother to be so involved in these memories that she misconstrued them to revolve around her time line, regardless if it was correct. I never really thought that in depth about family albums or photographs before, but she pointed out the struggle to be the center of these memories because something was clearly wrong. This was from the daughter’s ability to notice it, or her mother trying to put herself in places she was not. Before this article I never really thought about the hidden presence that a person might have on a photograph. I cannot say that article can be relatable to every family because not everyone fights for past memories. 

Wells 89-112

The beginning of this section emphasizes how distinguishing between artistic photography, photojournalism, and amateur picture snapping has become a lot more complicated, and I was suddenly reminded of a bizarre situation that depth to this debate.

A few days following Hurricane Sandy, I was flicking through TV stations and stumbled across one of my best friends photographs on News 8. The photo had been taken from instagram, and it was a tinted "artsy" looking shot of one of the many houses in my town that was totally wrecked by the storm. I called her the next day to remark on how cool I thought it was that her photo made the news and she had no idea what I was talking about, but she did say she had spontaneously acquired tons of new followers on instagram, all of which seeemed to be artists or photographers of some kind.

Its interesting to me that even though they were looking at the same picture, what my friend considered to be a photograph of "something that looked cool", News8 was advertising as photojournalism, while her new instagram followers saw it as "art". It goes to show that since photography relies on technology, which is rapidly advancing everyday, its role in culture is far more complex than any other artistic form

Another aspect of the reading that really made me think was the theoretical idea that acts of looking and recording can never truly be neutral because the very act of taking a photograph must be inspired by attributing a meaning to whatever image you wish to capture, and this intended meaning creates a bias. I really like the idea of semiological analysis because it suggests that all artistic forms can be interpreted as literature, a cluster of symbol which convey a specific meaning partially due to authorial intention but also partially due to reader/viewer interpretation. This intersection of artist/viewer is especially complex with documentary photography because it presents an illusion of neutrality and thus the meaning is more potent.

Elizabeth McCausland

I found this reading very interesting and straight forward about documentary photography. Also made me think about it in a way that I have not thought about it before. It says the camera eye can not lie which is technically true but whats the line when the photographer chooses what to photograph? But it also mentions that it forces you to take in every detail that is in front of you. That also makes sense for documentary photography because you are trying to capture the truth and want people to see the truth. Which also brings up another interesting point is that now a days people expect to see the truth when looking at a photograph compared to a while ago where you were looking for the romance and illusionment in the photo. And another good point made was that it is hard to find factual truths in photographs now a days and that is why many documentary photographs were given to the government. Which makes me think about photo journalism and documentary photographs and which one is more factual than the other and which is more intensional.

Illuminations: Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White's work was some of the first documentary photography I was exposed to. I remember studying it in seventh grade and immediately wanting to be an influential photographer, just like her. Interestingly, the aspects of her career discussed in the excerpt which excited and motivated her were the same reasons I realized I was not cut out for the business.

It is the elbowing, crawling, and constant vigilance that go along with shooting a particular event for documentary purposes that discouraged me, whereas these things invigorated Bourke-White. She seems as if she welcomed challenging assignments because they made her earn the images she produced. It seems incredible that she did not become discouraged when faced with intense press competition and even legal repercussions for her work. I admire the fact that instead of fighting tooth-and-nail to get the same shot as the other big press photographers, she preferred to shoot from more inventive angles that were available to her. 

I also would argue that the element of press competition is not one that the public often takes into account when looking as photographs distributed through mass media. Is this because of the tendency of this genre of photography to be indexical of reality? Or does the art of the documentary photograph rest in the photographer's innovative or unique perspective?

Migrant Mother

Among many interesting facts about the Migrant Mother by Lange, I found the fact that she became such an iconic image in history. She opitimized the Great Depression at the time. Also what was interesting that since it was during the Great Depression because she thought she was going to get help by posing for the photo but it was not until years later, when she was in California, that she was recognized as being the woman in the photo. As reading this reading I couldn't help but think of the Che Guivera image from Cuba. Many knew what his face was but not what he stood for. That applies to the Migrant Woman as well, she became such an iconic image that she was recreated in many different ways for other countries. Im sure we've all seen this image before we've studied it but did not know the meaning behind it, which many people have the same thought. Lange took an image that meant to represent a mother and the hard life on the road but turned into such an iconic image that represented the Great Depression and an entire era which is incredible by one photograph.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

One of the most interesting aspects of this case study about the Migrant Mother, is the role of gender. The fact that it was a mother traveling with her children, and not a father is truthfully what makes the image successful. A males role in this photograph is not existent. Everything that the women represents, specifically a women who "has lost everything, yet heroically, stoically keeps her family together" (46), makes this image emotional to the viewer. She is shown as a nurturing mother, who is fighting to keep her family alive. I think that is why this image became an 'iconic' image of the Great Depression. Struggle to stay alive was a common struggle for most people in the Depression.

Another aspect that I find interesting about this image is how little Lange found out about the woman she was photographing. In a lecture I heard on photojournalism, the photographer emphasized getting to know your subject, and therefore you will be able to capture more intimate photographs of them. Although it is clear that in this case Lange did not need to know her subject better because the image she captured is packed with emotion and with meaning.

Case Study: Migrant Mother Response

One of the more troubling issues of documentary photography is the relationship between subject and photographer. In many ways, documentary photography can be an exploitation or objectification of a person, while also acting as a historical or otherwise significant document. The ethical issues surrounding this form of photography are complex, especially in the case of photography meant to document and perhaps change social issues, such as Lange’s work in the FSA. For example, in the case of Migrant Mother, is it fair that Lange used Florence Thompson’s image in the name of “social change” and “equality”, when Lange subsequently became famous and Thompson faded into obscurity and poverty? Or, when an image such as Migrant Mother becomes so widely reproduced and is able to incite social change, is the sacrifice worth it? As documentary photography and photojournalism have blurred over the years, I would argue that these issues become even more complicated and problematic. Two images that come to mind are the more recent case of the photographer who photographed a man moments before being run over by a train in the NYC subway, and the (less recent) image of an emaciated child being stalked by a vulture in Africa. These photographs launched the photographers into perhaps infamy, while the fate of the subject is either unknown or tragic. Is there a line that has been crossed, or is that photographer doing their job to document a current event?

Case Study: Migrant Mother

Some of my favorite photography comes out of the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl when photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Berenice Abbott began to document the American citizens as a post gilded age population of desolate mid westerners or tough city goers, rather than the elegant bourgeois socialites of the earlier 1900s.

I also appreciate that the first real governmental use of photography in the Farm Security Administration, which set out to use photography as a journalistic tool with a artistic undertone to produce captivating images of the way life was after the social upheaval and hope to improve the lives of those documented by doing so. I think Migrant Mother is one of the best examples of this, and its iconic status has made the subject of the photo the face of the poor in America during that time, and more largely, representative of a weary eye on the future for those coming out of hard financial times, something that many people today can relate to after the "Great Recession" of 2008.

The idea that the government commissioned the Farm Security Administration of photographers and writers to go out and document daily life was reminiscent of efforts to inspire westward expansion during the days of Manifest Destiny, but where still life painters had been sent out to depict glorious images of the west, this time photographers were sent to go document people to inspire change and provide aid for their situations. In our discussions in class about the movement toward photography being accepted as an artistic medium, I think this period of time was significant, especially given that it produced an image that is still recognizable today in Lange's Migrant Mother, something we can relate to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa in that it is a mysterious image of a woman representative of society in the time it was create, and it still captivates audiences today.

As a journalism student, I also think it shows a significance in the designation that photography has a journalistic purpose while maintaining its artistic nature, and was the beginnings of photojournalism being an accepted form of both art and reporting.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange is a photo that has been to referred to time and time again as a classical example of American Photography. Coinciding with the case study, I recognized this image as soon as I saw it, but I could not for the life of me recall the author. It is clear why this image has echoed through the decades. The woman is viewed as a symbol larger than the actuality in which she exists. She appears to be the icon of hardship. "We were after the truth...not just making effective pictures."As though without effort, Lange captured the raw emotion and hardship that this woman and her family, one of the many who were enduring this period. I find myself relating to Heyman's statement, which says that the subjects of Lange's photographs are 'figures in history whose hardship the present viewer is incapable of healing.' To the point where she was eating frozen vegetables and birds her children killed to selling the tires off of the car in order to purchase food. These photographs attempted to capture the human condition during the economic crisis. What I found astounding was that these photographs were meant to document and record the position of the rural poor. As the photographers were not drones, they could not help but convey emotion in each frame.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

I'm a little embarrassed to say this is actually my first experience viewing the photograph "Migrant Mother." The image is captivating and I can see why it has received so much attention from the media over the past few decades. As stated in the article this woman is a "symbol of timeless sorrow," she is relatable to many audiences throughout time. The success and widespread attention given to this photo can be largely contributed to the ambiguous title "Migrant Mother." This is possible because she is taken out of the context of her surroundings. There is no reference of time or space. You cannot see her tent, or the barren land she occupies. You deduce her economic status from her clothes, expression and the state of her two boys, which hover behind her. From this picture it is clear she supports them, they lean on her shoulders, needing her.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

The photograph ‘Migrant Mother’ has become an iconic image which still carries a great power into the present. Something that I thought about while reading about the work was the difference between a photograph that has come to be famous and one that has become an icon. There are a number of photographs that are reproduced again and again, but not all of these are iconic works. It seems that what really makes this photograph so iconic is that it is universal in the sense that this woman could be anyone, at anytime, and anywhere.

The rather humble approach to photography which Lange seems to use acknowledges the equally important role of the viewer in the development of a photograph. Lange understands that while she was the one standing behind the camera, the one who captured this image in such a powerful way, it is the viewer who completes the story.

So really, it’s all about achieving a sort of balance. It is the role of the photographer to create an image, an image which will take on meanings given by the viewer. Lange captured this image of the ‘Migrant Mother’ in such a way that allowed the viewer to make it an icon.

Case Study: Image Analysis: The Example of Migrant Mother

While reading the article, the idea that stood out the most to me was that the F.S.A. directed photographers on the subject matter of their imagery and gave them strict guidelines on the way in which the photograph could be taken and presented to the public. I have become quite familiar with the Migrant Mother image due to its popularity, but prior to reading the article I had no idea of the context in which it was taken. I completely agree with critics comments regarding the strong emotional element of the image. However, it sounded like Lange did not intentionally capture such a highly compelling moment, but rather saw the potential in the accident. I enjoyed the quote from Therese Heyman, “figures in history whose hardship the present viewer is incapable of healing – symbols of timeless sorrow”. I felt as though this description of the image captured my feelings when viewing the image for the first time and this is the reason for the photograph’s novelty. I was also interested in the way in which John Pultz related the image to traditional paintings, through his description of the woman’s gesture, body, facial expression and the way the image is cropped.

Madame Yevonde

Madame Yevonde was a color portrait photographer.  She was one of the first people in London to exhibit color photos.  This is one of the reasons I was drawn to her article.  Her first exhibit was more than successful, staying open a week more than it was originally scheduled for.  She was confident and willing to put herself out there for all to see, even though color portraits were just getting started.  I also enjoyed her article because she spoke of the struggles she had while photographing her “Goddesses and Others” series.  She had to try many things to get the snakes on her Medusa head just right, but she never gave up.  Failure wasn’t an option and she would do just about anything to get a good shot.  This shows extremely well when she is discussing how she photographed Lady Campbell as Niobe.  She could not get the fake tears to stay on her sitters face well enough to get the image she desired.  After mixing the solution with Vaseline, it got into Madame Campbell’s eyes and she cried real tears.  The resulting photograph was extraordinary.  Madame Yevonde was an amazing photographer and I applaud her work because she was willing to do just about anything to get the shot she wanted.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

I think it is particularly interesting that Wells looks at the image as an icon last, because it is through this lens that we relate meanings to it, but it is also the meanings given to it which frame it as an iconic image. The notion that the images symbolic value carries more weight than its reality, in the sense that it has become an iconic image is troubling, because, as Well’s illustrates through multiple contexts, its portrayal of reality helped anchor it to its actual representation during its use by the FSA. As Migrant Mother continuously moves farther away from its creation date, its representation has changed however, to that of a nostalgic view of the past, an archetypal mother figure, an anchor for America, etcetera, and thus, as Rabinowitz points out is drained of its reality and as a result becomes iconic in status. The image is an icon, because in modern society it has come to symbolize religion, culture, politics, and economics, and thus its reality in representing the original Migrant Mother is no longer apparent. While the image still speaks to the same causes, it no longer stands for simply whatever the FSA was trying to portray with it. 

Case Study: Migrant Mother

This photograph by Dorothea Lange is one photo that I will never forget due to its strong imagery and feeling that goes along with it. It's so interesting how the title, "Migrant Mother" can change your perspective upon viewing the image rather of it were called something else ambiguous. The fact that she is a mother provides a human element thus making it emotional. The viewer can see the pain and struggle in her eyes, in the wrinkles on her face and overworked hands and all over her tattered clothing all while she's the comforting rock of her children's life. So much comes through this image and her clothing really helps the viewer distinguish the historical context. I love this photograph and it really is disappointing that the mother in the image didn't get any money for it when it's one of the most reproduced images ever.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

I think that article was interesting to read as a photographer.
I have always thought very highly of this photograph and Dorothea Lange as an artist. What I thought was interesting was the fact that the government owned all the rights to the negatives and the prints. The fact that she wasn't allowed to edit any of her own photographs is crazy. I understand the journalistic ideal of not editing pictures, to ensure the raw integrity of taking pictures.

I also that it was interesting that she wasn't very good at printing her photographs. That the only "art prints" that were made were for the Moma years after the actual pictures were taken. It seems strange that she wasn't an all around "photographer" in the way that we are taught to be, or it is stressed to be. That printing is just as important as shooting. And Lange didn't seem to print any of her photographs, never mind print them well.

I think the most striking thing about the article however, was the analysis about the process of shooting the pictures in the field, and the production and re-production of the image. How she just stumbled upon the image and only took five frames. How the woman, Florence Thompson, never made anything from the images, or the fact that a stipend wasn't given to her for her struggle. I think the whole process was very backhanded and to be honest, slightly over rated.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

After reading the case study on Dorothea Lange’s photograph titled Migrant Mother, one part in particular stands out to me, and that is of John Roberts’ summarization of Andrea Fisher’s thoughts.  He emphasizes the power of family, and how that power can overcome all obstacles.  This photograph becomes more than poverty-stricken people during the Depression; it is that of a family holding on to each other for support when times are tough. 

The minimalistic photograph tells more of a story itself than the family’s history of pea picking.  The close up of the figures, and more specifically the mother’s central position, as said in the case study, is iconic and symbolic. The woman's gaze into the distance invites the viewer into her thoughts, sympathizes with her, and builds off her strength and determination to provide for her family.  She acts as a representation of anyone during this period of time.  This photograph in particular was so successful because Lange excluded all detail and focused solely on the iconic figure, creating a timeless photograph. 

Dorothea Lange’s piece has been named and captioned as many things:  Migrant mother, Seasonal Farm Labourer’s Family, Destitute pea pickers in California, a 32 year old mother of seven children, but her own chosen title, Migrant Mother, works best at keeping this photograph timeless.  

Case Study: Migrant Mother

    After reading the case study, Migrant Mother, I felt that it was a simple way to make a huge impact on the world. Stryker commented on Lange's image and summarized it in two words. "Mother and Child". This statement is such a basic idea, but after looking at the image you understand the stress and tension that this mother and her children were going through. On a more complex note Lange's Migrant Mother had a made an enormous statement about the political and economic state the country was going through. The women and children look beat up and dirty from the image and I'm sure a lot of people could connect with what this women was going through. There is no father in the image as well so there is a sense of abandonment or loneliness that we all feel at some point. I just find it amazing that such a simple image can become so popular and relatable without even one word said. This is really a basic example of how a picture can say a thousand words.
      The case study also talked about how it was important to keep the image as untouched as possible. I think this is an important issue because to say an image is one hundred percent unaltered makes it even more relatable and genuine.
     Even though this image rose to incredible heights of popularity, the case study talks about how it became a documentation of the time period. When an photograph can summarize the hardships the nation is going through with just one image then there is really something special there.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

As an image that has saturated the media with its reproduction since its creation, Migrant Mother has been subject to many contextualizations. What I find interesting is the wide range of conclusions drawn about the image as a result of its changes in context. While the photograph is now considered undeniably iconic, its meaning has been understood to symbolize a variety of concepts.

In a gallery setting, the image is judged by its formal constructs and its relation to art history. However, these aspects are more often considered in the scope of a psychoanalytical assessment. With a woman as central subject, preconceived notions of femininity play a role in the photograph's interpretation. 

For many, this is an image that has become representational of motherhood. This is a logical explanation as result of its title. In this case, it is easy to focus on the apparent interaction between the mother and her children, and the implications of her stoic expression. Little else is apparent as a result of the elimination of most of the surroundings.

However, understood within its context as a photograph taken for the FSA during the Depression, it can be interpreted as the embodiment of hardship. In this context, the mother's role becomes woman exposed to poverty, with which viewers can sympathize as she struggles to support her children. In this way Migrant Mother has become iconic of the Great Depression.

Throughout the career of this photograph, the part that I found most interesting was that the woman, Florence Thompson, did not directly benefited from being its subject. Lange stated that she thought Thompson participated willingly because she knew the photo would help her. In actuality, she never saw a penny from its success. So, in a way, the meaning the photograph is iconic for exists more in the photograph than in real life.

Haley Taylor

The Migrant Mother

What I found most interesting about the Migrant Mother was how one image became an icon for an entire period of American History. This image has been reproduced millions of times in contexts other than a photograph, like stamps, magazine covers, and still used today. 

What I wanted to highlight about this reading is how Lange "admitted that she wasn't interesting in 'her name or her history'". She only knew few details about her and she didn't care. However, reading her passage in Illuminations,  she was so compelled to take the picture, she drove 20 miles in the opposite direction to take pictures that only took 10 minutes to take.  It seems like photography was her passion but by not caring about the people she took pictures of it makes her seem emotionless. 

Another interesting comparison I found in the readings for this week was Lange's lack in caring to know who the Migrant Mother was compared to Welty. They both took pictures to document the depression and neither were interesting in the subjects personal history. However, in Welty's case, she said once the final picture was printed, all she saw was the face of the subject and their story in their eyes. Despite it was just a picture to document the time period, it was ignored because the personality came through the print.  I think the same could be argued in Lange's print. While we only know little about her, her personality and her history shines through the photograph.  You can see her struggle, her strength, and see who she is as a person through the image. 

Case Study: Migrant Mother

Well’s “Image Analysis: The Example of Migrant Mother,” is particularly interesting because it explores the complexities of examining a photograph. One aspect I thought I found to be interesting was when Wells questions why this one photograph of Migrant Mother had become so famous when Lange took so many, similar, supplemental photographs.  

Part of this, Wells explains, can be attributed to the woman used “purely as subject.” The mother is centered, framed by her two children. There is little reference to her surroundings, and as a result her name and history are not significant aspects. Instead the photograph acts as a symbolic embodiment of mother and child.

The purity in the representation of mother and child evokes the idea of universality. Well’s mentions the opinion of Roy Stryker, in which he states, “she happens to be badly dressed. It was bad conditions. But she’s still a mother and she had children.” This idea allows the photograph to transcend the portraiture and comment on a “humanitarian notion of universal similarities in the condition of humankind.”

I found it disappointing to discover that the mother did not benefit from the photographs. Especially following the artist’s account in which she speaks of a “sort of equality.” This is where the idea of universal condition of humankind becomes less comforting, because although there is a shared sense of motherhood, the quality of life is drastically disproportionate. All of these concepts are interesting because they reveal the many truths a photograph can hold.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

In the reading for this week I learned about Dorthea Lange's image, Migrant Mother. This image quickly rose to be one of the most reproduced images. I find it interesting that through being reproduced it has been able to take on many different meanings. In one sense it represents the Madonna and child while in another it depicts human distress. It is even more interesting to think about how the title even changes the way the image is viewed. Being titles Migrant Mother gives a whole different perspective than if it was called Seasonal Farm Laborer’s Family. This is simply because it gives the sense of something more – there is a father somewhere off camera working, it is not just this woman and her children.

I also find the framing to be of significance in this image. Of all 5 images that had been taken of this woman and her children this is the only one that does not include any sort of background. This simple fact is what makes this image; it is so incredibly versatile. This woman can be anywhere and any one. This photograph can be applied to a multitude of difference situations and still carry a strong meaning.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

Dorothea Lange took the iconic image of a mother on the side of the road with her children in 1936.  Since its original publication, the photo has been used and seen around the world.  After reading the case study, the short article in Illuminations, and looking into the photo online, I was kind of disappointed with the image and the story behind it.  At first I was really interested in the image and Lange’s story.  I was moved by her account of how she stumbled upon this hard working mother and how the woman had struggled to support her family.  But after doing some of my own readings on the image I was disappointed to find that the woman photographed, Florence Thompson, continued to struggle throughout her life.  She never made any money off of the image, while Lange reaped all the benefits.  I understand that as a photographer, you cannot always give your models proper credit or money for letting you take their picture.  But Lange knew this image could circulate because of her job for the FSA, and she was making money off of it, even if it was only a small amount.  The least she could have done was help this mother by giving her some money to help her family.  Instead, Lange told Thompson that she wouldn’t sell the image and didn’t even have the decency to ask Thompson her name after taking such intimate photos of her and her children.

Migrant Mother

I was familiar enough with this photograph to know that this article on "Migrant Mother" was missing key details about the series of events that led up to and followed its creation and publishing. Migrant Mother was one of a series of six photographs Lange took as she approached the family and at least three of them appear to have been posed in part by Lange (at least, shifts in position and gaze seem indicative of that), meaning that there was likely some minor collaboration between subject and photographer. Florence Thompson's anger at being an overnight media sensation is indicative that the sentiment captured in the photograph was genuine and that Thompson failed to realize what Lange was capable of doing with the photographs. Being thrust into the public eye and inextricably associated with both poverty and the fundamental economic problems of your country seems in this case to be violating, not flattering. She became a symbol for the people who saw her photograph in the newspaper but it's a shallow insight into Thompson's true personal struggle.

This article seemed more concerned with comparing the success of the photograph with the lives of the Thompson family than explaining the truth of the situation. It's unfair, I think, to fail to mention that Lange could not make any money off the photographs since they were taken while she was on government assignment and thus they are a part of the public domain. The contrast is greater without extra details involved, making it more sensational.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

The image analysis of Migrant Mother goes into great detail of how the meaning behind and discussion of this photograph has been altered to fit several different contexts in the years since it was originally taken. I found this case study to be extremely interesting, and opened my eyes to how an image can be pulled apart and analyzed in so many different ways that it can lose its authenticity. 

Dorothea Lange took this photograph while employed by FSA, which was a project in response to the depression of the 1930s. Since then, it has become one of the most reproduced images in the history of photography. The mass reproduction of a photograph like Migrant Mother is unprecedented, yet over time, it has been used and contextualized in a variety of ways that stray from its original purpose. It is clear that political and social purposes can be drawn from Migrant Mother, and as with any other political or social statement, controversy is easily attracted. The amount of conversation surrounding this photograph, however, is unprecedented.

In my opinion, this case study was a perfect example of photographic overanalysis. It seems unfair that the subject of this photo has received no compensation, and wasn't even able to comment about the photograph until 50 years after it had been published. Lange took the photograph with a purpose in mind; and while it is an extremely interesting photograph, its meaning has been changed time and time again "in relation to particular sets of concerns". I feel as though critics should take a step back and remember the subject of this photo and her story rather than the stories that have been created since it was taken.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother became an iconic image of the American depression.  It was a powerful image representing a woman who lost everything and continues to worry about the future.  How will I feed myself and my children?  Where will we sleep?  What do I do?  All through these difficult times, we still see a strong woman doing what she can to hold her family together.   Migrant Mother successfully reflects every mother or parental figure struggling to keep strong for their children. In rural America during this time, Dorothea knew Migrant Mother would represent all mothers concerned for the well-being of their families.

It is unfortunate however to know the woman who agreed to have her photograph taken never received compensation for her image.  She knew her photograph would open people's eyes about the tragedy of the farming community, but Dorothea Lange never shared the profits she earned.

Dorothea even writes about the undergoing worries this woman had, "She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed.  She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food." (Lange, 1960)

Knowing Migrant Mother continued to stay an anonymous woman, and never revelled to the public showing how she overcame the depression, makes me very unhappy with Dorothea Lange. This woman never received money for her story and face, and we do not know about her life after the depression.  It was purely her tragic story due to the depression that was what made the photograph so famous.

Case Study: Migrant Mother

In this Case study it discusses Lange’s photograph, Migrant Mother. She was assigned on a government project called Farm Security Administration (FSA).  In this case study it mentions how this is one of the most reproduced image in the history of photography. It has powerful symbolic meaning that is reflected through the title and the subject. The absence of the father, her gaze, and the emotion the scene of mother and child creates is popular because it is a documentary picture that stood for the realities of America. While reading this case study I could not help but think of the image of Che Guevara, Guerrillero Heroico by Alberto Korda in the 1960s. Both of these images were mass-produced for the viewer to support causes that may or may not have strayed from the original context of the image. In Migrant Mother the viewer was not given her name, and remained as an iconic Virgin and Child photograph. Similarly, for Guerrillero Heroico most people will wear his image and not know his history either, but because it is such a strong photograph it inspires hope for the viewer. This desperate hungry mother represented the depression in the 1930s. It stood for the damaged femininity that the depression caused and the strength the females had to keep their families together. Lange was considered the “mother” of documentary from this image, and it brought her great success. Ironically, the female subject in the image commented on the image 50 years later saying that even though she was proud of it, it brought her no good. To me, the use of documentary photography is to inspire change for the better, and I am not so sure it did in the right places. 

The FSA and the "Migrant Mother"

The fact that the photographer of “Migrant Mother”, Dorothea Lange, was herself a woman, was crucial to the creation of this emotionally charged photograph that has come to be known as an icon of the Great Depression. The Farm Security Administration, to which Lange was employed, hired photographers for the purpose of documenting the lives of the rural poor in America. Photographers like Lange, however, took this a step further in capturing the emotional pain and suffering of the subjects depicted in their photographs in order to encourage the viewer to feel a certain sense of sympathy for these “deserving poor”. It has been argued that the fact that Lange was a woman and in touch with her emotional intuition that she was able to form a connection to her subjects that helped to portray them in a deeper way than a straightforward documentary photograph. Her choice of subject matter in “Migrant Mother”- a poor, suffering, lonely mother of young children- was crucial to evoking the sense of sympathy that she desired the viewers to feel.

 Once the FSA had a hold of Lange’s negatives, they had exclusive rights to her photographs and could do essentially whatever they chose to do with them. The FSA used this particular image to such an extent that the woman depicted Florence Thompson, became known by her face all over the country. The ironic thing about the whole situation is that although originally, Lange took the photograph with the idea that it might one day serve to better the life of the migrant mother, Thompson publically admitted that “she had never made a penny out of it and it had done her no good”.

The Voyeuristic Gaze

Because of it’s nature of appearing as though it is a fragment of a whole, in addition to the constantly present gaze of the photographer, photography is the perfect medium in which to perpetuate the hegemonic concepts that society holds on gender and gender roles, as well as the female body. Photography serves to emphasize the “voyeuristic gaze” in that the gaze of the photographer is unavoidable and easily picked up on. When the gaze is emphasized in a picture of the female body, she is demoted to a passive object, meant only for the viewer’s pleasure. The “cut” nature of a photograph further serves to objectify a pictured female body in that she is visually reduced to the sum of her parts. The advertisement photographer often chooses to only represent a piece of the woman- her identity as a person is no longer important.

The ways in which women are represented in advertisement photography reflects constructs already dominant in society, but unfortunately, it also perpetuates them. Women are presented with these images along with the idea that this is what a properly feminine woman “should” look like. The images the media presents us with are artificially constructed, and impossible to replicate in real life. It seems to be widespread knowledge that the images of the media are fake, yet we all continue to strive for this impossible standard. The creators of these images know how to use the connotation of the image to trick the viewer into believing that to look the way these digitally altered models look is not only possible, but necessary in order to be well-liked, happy, and successful. It sickens me to think that these masterminds create ads to knowingly manipulate women with low self-confidence and even go so far as to promote eating disorders. Clearly, when put in the wrong hands, photography can be a deadly weapon.      

Bourke-White: Life Begins Individual Response

This essay is about the beginning of Life magazine, and one of the four photographers documenting stories. Bourke-White was a woman who traveled to document the New Deal, which was an Earth dam. When she returned people expected photographs of construction, but instead there was a photo essay of the American frontier life. It starts off with a story of success and then mentions her struggles of competition when the TV came out and being able to get and keep the right spot for a photograph. What I found interesting was the part about her traveling to Jersey City to photograph the Mayor. I admire the fact that she had the courage to sneak out and document the “skeletons” that the Mayor was hiding from the town. He was out for big appearances and always looking good, but in reality there was issues like child labor and poor quality of life that needed to be address and could not because of the Mayors, “I am the law” mentality. Since he had a powerful law enforcement locals could not reveal the horrors that were occurring, but secretly helped Bourke-White in exposing them. It was disappointing to hear that they had destroyed her film at the end of the essay, but it was comforting to know that she did not take big risks when it came to exposing these secrets, and sent away what she could as soon as she could. I admire this piece a lot because of her strength to always keep fighting for the truth of American, and not supporting the cover-ups.  

Julia Margaret Cameron: Glass House

Having not previously known of Julia Margaret Cameron, I had to Google her; to see her art and read about her life.  After looking at some of her images I really enjoyed reading her piece in Illuminations. One thing that really struck me right off the bat was how she felt about her camera so soon after getting it.  Cameron says that she “handled [her] lens with a tender ardour, and it has become to be as a living thing, with voice and memory and creative vigor.”  I think, as a photographer, that it is really important to love what you are doing.  You must care for your equipment like you would a small child.  Love and tenderness can only help you in the long run.  I am also drawn to Cameron because of her enthusiasm.  She knew nothing about art of photography, but after getting one “good” print, she turned her coal house into a darkroom, and got rid of her fowls (which made her money from the eggs) to make a studio.  She took risks and her first successful print was slightly out of focus and blurry.  This didn’t matter to Cameron, because she was proud of it.  This made her continue to make art, even photographing Charles Darwin and Sir Henry Taylor.

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion and 'The Other'

What I found the most interesting about this case study was how influential fashion was on tourism in the East. I knew that photography brought about a movement of interest to the East and exploring its "exoticness" and utopianism. Most of the photographs portrayed the women of the East as beneath and the empowerment of white men. I found it interesting because post cards were sold by the millions of women's commodification of their bodies. It intrigued me because when I think mostly about post cards I think of happy beautiful things not of women but as it said it showed a sense of exoticism that attracted the west to travel. With these post cards spreading into all the homes of the Europeans and  Western homes its brought about travel to the East. Another interesting thing was while traveling photographers set up photo shoots and travelers could dress up in 'custom' gards. This added to the fact of "exoticness" of the East of the superiority of the white men and women.

Case Study: The Commodification of Human Relations and Experience

When looking at advertising photographs from the 1900’s it is clear to see the affect a time period plays in an ad. The current social and economic status of a country determines what the intended message is the ad is trying to convey to the public as well as the viewers response to the ad. The article goes into great depth about the role of the publisher and the viewer and how these can differ depending on one’s personal experiences. For example, Barthes proposed that there is a denoted (factual element) and connoted (inferred message) in every advertisement. All advertisements have a purpose, to provoke attention to a specific brand, event or topic to begin with but they also have to serve the purpose of getting one’s attention and persuading the viewer to do the intended action in response to viewing the photograph. In the photograph of Ali Zafar for the Telenor’s Mobile TV ad, we can see the different elements of an image put to use. For example, in looking at visual signs we can see that the cell phone is an object conveying a message about the social and economic status of Zafar and base the narrative of the photograph off of other suggestive cues in the image such as the other characters, the blue lines, the rugged jeep, etc. It is clear to see that different people would read this image differently based on what they know about Pakistani culture and whether or not they are familiar with Zafar. Stuart Hall explains the importance of conveying a purposeful message in an advertisement, “images are first ‘encoded’ by the producer and then ‘decoded’ by the viwer. The transfer of meaning in this process only works if there are compatible systems of signs and symbols which the encoder and decoder use within their cultural life.” Different experiences or beliefs such as religion, sex, education, socio-economic status, etc. can dramatically effect the way one person reads an image compared to another person. In this way, photographers can also restrict the way in which people view an image by using elements such as text to in a sense, control how one begins to think about an image. One can also use effects such as digital photography, black and white or editing techniques to transfer a certain message to viewers.

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion and 'The Other'

Photography can be manipulated, and should not be taken into account the truths of a culture or fashion.  For the study of tourism and fashion, Malek Alloula writes about the exaggeration of the photographs taken for brochures, magazines and other advertisements.

For tourism, an example in the article is a couple adorned in Moroccan attire and placed in a setting of elaborate rugs.  However, this is all a set, it was created and manipulated.  This couple paid money to be showcased in the garments and smiled for a pretty picture.  But this is not an actual documentation of the culture.  This is rather what tourists want to see, they are paying for a scene that isn't real.  As stated, "Tourism creates its own culture for consumption."

As for fashion, there is no clear cut of the clothing, rather it is how the figures are being represented.  Gender plays a key role in fashion, leading to a sexually desiring photograph.  But, this unhealthy obsession with the female and male body with fashion won't stop. Why? Because it sells.

Tourists are willing to pay for an unreal photograph so they can boast to friends and family, while fashion alters our perception by glamorizing the body.  It's unfortunately of what we want, and what we are willing to pay for as consumers.

Limits of advertisement

   I chose this article because we are still interacting with thousands of advertisements everyday and it is interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't. Toscani's Benetton advertising used photographs to send a message to the viewer. What I thought was really shocking was the type of images he used most of the time. He wanted there to be a shock factor when people saw his advertisements on a billboard, but many of his images were very controversial. His sweet images of children smiling turned into People dying form AIDS and girls being shunned. I think this a very good way to catch peoples attention and get more publicity, but I do not know if that is the kind of publicity you would want. Toscani did sell a lot of photographs from this shock factor, but I know that to take this route in the photography field he must have known that many companies would refuse to work with him afterwards. Toscani did however take down images when they were very sensitive to current events like refusing to put the images of the Zulu girl being shunned in The New Yorker. Overall he was extremely successful in getting his name out there, but it would be hard for me to become well known off such shocking images.

Case Study: The Limits of Advertising

Toscani was hired to front an advertising campaign for Benetton, a small italian clothing line. He launched the company almost overnight by creating an ad campaign to shock consumers. Towards the beginning of the campaign Toscani depicted young children wearing Benetton's clothing and smiling. The company was promoting diversity. As the campaign pressed on however, Toscani began photographing social issues. He photographed a child dying of aids, death row, a black slave owner nursing a white child, all the while not including any of Benetton's merchandise in the photographs. Are these images meant to "promote social awareness," or merely shock the public? I think shock photography like this is a cheap trick to get a reaction out of consumers. "Our advertising needs to shock - otherwise people will not remember it " says Benetton's advertising manager. I feel like Benetton using these images to shock the public solely for the purpose of people remembering their name is not good advertising.

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion and 'The Other'

The idea discussed in the reading of tourism creating its own culture for consumption is so interesting in part because it still holds true so strongly in the present. In fact, it can be seen in fashion as well, a connection the reading makes. With both fashion and tourism, it seems that there are at least two ways of looking at this “culture for consumption.” In the section about tourism, I immediately thought of EPCOT in Florida. There is a sort of “mall of countries” which people can visit and experience ranging from France to Morocco, Canada to Ireland. And while these reproductions are the typical “tourist traps,” they are also more than that. When EPCOT first opened, many people didn’t have the ability to travel to all these places themselves, to see the sights, and experience the exotic, so this place gave them the chance to get a taste of what the world was like. Today, it is still an attraction, even in this age of tourism. So these re-creations, these stereotypical experiences of countries, are they to be viewed as a negative experience? While these places may be “cookie-cutter countries,” there is some value to going there even today. The people working at each place are there from the actual country, and the buildings are designed to actually reflect the styles of the country (they brought in professional mosaic makers from Morocco to design the interior decorations of the EPCOT country). So, with both fashion and tourism I feel that, while the images are controlled and manipulated, some more than others, there is still something that we can take from it.

Case Study: The Commodification of Human Relations and Experience

We hope art will be universal, ideally transcending age, class, and cultural differences.  But the advertisement we were given as an example in this case study is very much of a specific time and place, and it's significance has an expiration date. The celebrity and his or her marketable associations are just as expendable as the advertisement they are serviced for.  Like the revolving door that is the 'It girl’ whom commodify their eyelashes, lips, and themselves completely; each 'reservoir of character' are used as a prop for the thing being sold.  Though the reservoir can easily become tainted by age, arrests, a bad movie, or simply becoming too unimportant, and when their marketability drops, the advertisement becomes devoid as well.  The connoted message is a useful crutch for advertisement photography when it's only substance is an object and ideology.

Wells, Case Study: The Grammar of the Ad

I found this case study reading to be both very informative and interesting. I've always thought of myself to being pretty keen to connoted messages in photographs along with the blatant denoted ones that I can easily distinguish, but this Telenor advertisement had some elements I missed that surprised me.

It's obvious that the blonde man on the phone is the main focus in the ad, but it was interesting to me of how much effort was put into making sure that everything and everyone surrounding the main model, Ali Zafar, was significantly minimized. From the fragmented faces to the chipped paint on the truck Zafar is riding in.

One part of the reading that really enticed me was the part where the text stated how celebrities and wealthy people are "reservoirs of  'character'", even if they haven't really done anything to gain that recognition. The exact same thing can be said in America's society today. There are people who love Kim Kardashian because of her "character", but the whole reason she became famous in the first place is because of her infamous sex tape. Then you see her in commercials promoting some weight loss product and they go flying off the shelves due to the power her fame and fortune has bought her.

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion and 'The Other'

As we have previously discussed, photography is often mistaken for truth. This notion is particularly relevant in association with the depiction of people from other cultures. While the subject that is photographed may be real in and of itself, the information we glean from the image is tailored by elements controlled by the photographer. The viewer's assumptions about the content and context of the photograph, especially in the case of the depiction of cultural 'otherness,' can go in a variety of directions, with varying levels of truth. 

I find it interesting that often, people from other cultures are photographed in a way that emphasizes the spectacle of their 'otherness' through their dress or surroundings. To some extent I understand the desire to focus on the characteristics of foreign countries and people that are different from our own. We all do it in our own travels, just as this case study discusses. Tourism really thrives on each country's niche, which is portrayed to the extent of becoming symbolic for the culture itself. Travelers love the simple, packaged way in which they can consume the elements of the culture that their own lacks. This is evident in the photographs we all bring home from any number of foreign locations. However, this cliched representation of other cultures, although we believe it because of the spectacle in images we have seen, is not always representative of the true lives of the people within that culture. 

This goes along with the fashion aspect of the case study. We depict what we want to see, not necessarily what is true. Fashion photography strives to depict images of what is desirable, so that consumers will also desire it. The clear sexualization of the often female subject creates an illusion of glamour and fantasy. The introduction of different cultures to the realm of fashion photography creates an interesting tension between the familiar spectacle found in the desirableness of the subject and the distancing effect of foreign color palettes and dress are used to create this feeling of 'otherness.'

So, maybe I should re-evaluate the stereotypes I associate with foreign cultures, because what I have seen in pictures is not always representative of reality.

Haley Taylor

Benetton, Toscani, and the Limits of Advertising

Benetton, Toscani, and the Limits of Advertising left me wondering, after Toscani's termination from Benetton, and Luciano Benneton's articulation against campaigning, if there is ever a time when advertising is an appropriate place for 'serious discussions' of ideological positions. While the majority of art made in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries seems to be focused on addressing positions that take stances, which often parallel Toscani's technical tactics - use of archetypal figures, symbolical meanings, shock factor, and documentary-esque imagery - there are few advertisements I can recall that go so far as making 'real' social commentary.  It seems that the limits of advertising are obviously bound by a companies attempts to gain as much capitol from as large of a customer-base as possible; While modern ad's mimic societal standards, they rarely, if ever, comment on them. From an artistic perspective, Toscani's risky ad's are admirable in his attempt to push such a delicate boundary. While I originally questioned Toscani's thought process, in crossing the limits of advertising, his move seems carefully cultivated, as he was already of a famous stature, his termination would have brought more attention to his name, and the terms of his cease of employment would more directly reflect on the images he provided to Benetton. It seems then, that much like Andy Warhol or even Toulouse-Lautrec, who first made their names in advertising, Toscani was able to use the media in his favor, to ultimately make art with serious discussions of ideological positions.

Matt McIntosh

Response to Case Study: Tourism, Fashion, and "The Other"

One of the most interesting points to consider in this case study is the way foreign places were depicted in early photography and exploration, and how they are depicted now through modern photography and tourism, and realizing that not much has changed. Nineteenth century photography shaped the idea of foreign places as “exotic”, having an “otherness” based on the bias of colonized people being lesser than Europeans. Cultural differences between the photographer’s european/white culture, and the foreign/non-white culture of the colonized peoples were purposely exploited, and continue to be exploited today, as is evident through tourism and tourist photography. Visiting a foreign place for the first time is a new and exciting experience, but is not always treated as such. As Wells points out, oftentimes people feel an obligation to visit the places or see the sights that have been perpetuated as the quintessential parts of that culture (perhaps more fondly know as tourist traps). This is problematic because it furthers a stereotypical experience of that culture, and discourages actual unbiased exploration. In this way, tourism becomes a market based off of the exploitation of a culture and people, just as early nineteenth century exploration photography was. 

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion & 'The Other'

The tourism section of this case study really peeked my interest because I think everyone is a culprit of this.  And by this, I mean travelling to a well-known area and taking those stereotypical monument photographs that are a “must-see”.  Now some people might visit these landmarks because they are aware of, and are interested in, the historical value.  But many go because it’s a sight that has been famously photographed countless times before, and they want to go and photograph it themselves.  

As the case study stated, these exotic images are meant to entice viewers.  Branching into the fashion portion of the case study, fashion photographer’s main goal is to make the ordinary look extraordinary, and vice versa.  So keeping any historical context out of it, what makes these “go-to” places so captivating to tourists besides having seen them photographed before?  

A quote that struck me as alarmingly true was, “Tourism creates its own culture for consumption”.  Again, as the case study states, tourists seek out these sites to photograph for themselves in order to feel that their trip is complete; therefore, we have created souvenir stands and cliché restaurants and all the cheesy things to appease tourists as they capture the perfect shot of an over-photographed location. 

Case Study: Tourism, Fashion, and "The Other"

I thought it was really interesting how the reading related tourism photography with fashion photography. I never saw a relationship between the two before and the reading put that into perspective for me. They are related in the way in which they both try to capture exoticism. Being exotic is known as being the "other" or unfamiliar and distant. The meaning is the same today where exotic is foreign, glamorous and unique. Therefore, it makes sense for photographers to go to other countries to find models. Exotic women are known to be very beautiful. For example, most of the Victoria Secret models are from other countries and brought to America.
Fashion photography and tourism photography are also related in that they both attend to the constructed photograph. Tourists already have a set idea of what pictures to take on a trip from pictures they've seen at that same destination. Same with today, perhaps from photographers from the 19th century, we take pictures of the Eifell Tower when in France, the Tower of Pisa in Italy, and the Statue of Liberty here in America. The picture is constructed for us. In fashion photography, there is a photo-shoot, a manipulation to highlight the model and what she is wearing. There is thought behind the whole process before the picture is taken, making it a very clear example of constructed photography.