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.

Wells Case Study: The Commodification of Human Relations and Experience

The subtleties between the denoted and the connoted messages embedded in advertisements as explained in "The Grammar of the Ad" section of the Wells reading renewed my distaste for advertising. The Telenor Mobile TV ad contains a meticulously constructed photograph that has visual elements so precisely chosen and placed that it replicates the appearance of a candid experience while massively glorifying the product. Like the line between documentary and theater, the difference between photography and advertising is obscured, and the more obscured it gets, the more successful it is at convincing the consumer that the product is not just what they want, but what they need. The advertisement is a false reality that revolves solely around the given product. The only way it can seem even remotely convincing is through a visual experience that mimics the appearance of reality in every other way.

Case Study: Benneton, Toscani, and the Limits of Advertising

As we’ve discussed in class, photography became a powerful advertising tool early in the 20^th century. Case Study: Benneton, Toscani, and the Limits of Advertising describes the ways in which advertising and photography can clash; causing widespread uproar rather than interest in a product or company. At the beginning of Toscani’s career with Benneton, his imagery helped the company to increase sales and popularity drastically, bringing it from a small Italian family company to an international corporation. While his earlier work for the company reflected the international interests of Benneton, depicting multicultural youth wearing Benneton clothing, his later pieces strayed from the typical glorification seen in advertising and rather created an unprecedented element of shock amongst viewers. The advertisements began to completely contradict the global harmony that the company supposedly promoted. 

I find it extremely interesting that Toscani’s photographs practiced exactly the opposite of what the company preached.  From the start, Benneton’s advertisements “ignored the third world realities of globalization which are characterized by the exploitation of third world workers for the benefit of increased consumption in the West and the elites of third world nations”, as did many other multinational corporations. Yet later in his career, Toscani’s photographs went so far as to depict explicit and disturbing scenes that resulted in a negative historical interpretation rather than the individual reaction he was aiming for, in his words, “trendy ambiguity”.  Over all, the case study has brought to my attention that in order for photography to be a useful tool in advertisement, there needs to be that element of glorification, or on the other hand, degradation of a subject to accomplish the overarching goal of the ad. As Toscani has shown us, attempting to incorporate severe political and social contexts within advertising is not always effective. 

Response to Tourism, fashion, and 'the Other'

I think that this case studies opinion on tourism photography is totally correct. On page 242-243 the book discusses how photographs that are shown in brochures and post card images from foreign places often affect how the tourist wants to create their own photographs. The images that are used for advertising in the tourism industry become the main representation of that country, and tourists seek out the places that the images were taken. I find it interesting that people often search for these places to take similar images to ones they have seen in brochures or magazines, and like the book says they need that photograph "in order to feel that their trip is complete" (243).

The book describes how fashion photography is "blatantly concerned with the constructed photograph. It is also concerned with the exotic, dramatic, glamorous and different" (244). To me, this is not much different from the goals of tourism photography, the images taken to advertise a certain area are carefully constructed so that they will be visually captivating to the viewer and therefore make them want to travel there. The goal of both of these types of photography is to sell the audience on the product, whether it be a vacation or clothing.

Case Study 2/14 -- Commodification of Human Relations

After reading the case study and looking at the image it was referring to, I was surprised to read how much a simple advertisement can be analyzed.  When looking at ads in magazines or newspapers, I tend to only look at the product the ad is selling if it is pertinent to me, and if so, is it successfully makes me want to buy the product.  I only look at the denoted details in the ads, not the connoted details.  As a consumer, I don’t feel that the connoted details are important.  Pertaining to the ad the case study refers to, you only get the connoted details if you are familiar with the famous man in the middle.  If not, it is a little more difficult to read the ad as having social distinction and wealth.  Yes, he is the only man whose face you can fully see, but he is supposed to be the focus of the image.  Why would you want to see everyones face if he is the only important character? 

Week 4: 2/14

The primitive has long been a subject in art. During the 19^th century many painters depicted the primitive through the means of the female nude. Delacroix’s painting Odalisque represents the female figure, exposed and available, sexualized for the consumption of the European gaze. This gaze of the male artist objectifies the female body as well as ‘the Other’ to fulfill the European fantasy.

Well’s ‘Case Study: Tourism, Fashion and ‘the Other,’’ explores how photography functions in the representation of the exotic or primitive. Wells explains how many photographers were commissioned to capture the colonized people. These photographs often translated into an “unequal relationship of power between the white photographers and the colonized subject.” Through this, the colonized person is no longer is an individual, but instead an object for the European to consume. Wells describes the way in which “French photographers constructed visions of exotcisim which suited their own colonial fantasies and those of the European consumers of thse images.” These photographs allow Europeans to  “perceive their own superiority” in which “Europe was defined as ‘the norm’ upon which all other cultures should be judged.” The representation of non-western cultures through art illustrates the way in which art and photography can construct or distort reality. 

Gatsby at the Benton

Interview with Benton Curator on the Gatsby-themed exhibition

Varvara Stepanova

     I found it interesting that Varvara had written this article documenting her husbands innovative work in photomontage. Her husband, Alexander Rodchenko was the first photomontagist to ever live, but what I found very impressive was Rodchenko started working with actual photographs instead of the typical conglomerate photomontage being used at this time. Varvara talks about the importance of an actual photo being used and how there was some value to that. I can really understand this because there is a huge difference when you can hold and feel and actual image. It is easy to see why his work was appreciated at this time and it must have taken a lot of skill and patience to construct a montage of images with only a camera. Today, with such advancements in digital technology it is easy to put together a photomontage work of art in photoshop and print it out, but how many people actually take individual photos? There is a real importance and value to that and that is the main thing that caught my attention in this article.

Reminder: Advert Assigned Post

Please post under the link on the right hand side and leave main page for independent posts, thanks! [I won't count it against anyone who has already posted here, just a reminder for organization's sake.]

Case Study: The Commodification of Human Relations Response

I found this case study to be very interesting. I had never really looked so far into any specific ad before reading this however I found myself fascinated with all the different elements. First off there is the two different meanings being portrayed in one single ad, the denoted and the connoted. The denoted being the literal reality and the connoted being the symbolic aspect. In this ad, as with every ad, we see both represented. Ali Zafar, who is a pop star, is seemingly placed into this exciting wilderness scene. He is presumably zipping through the desert with natives of that area on some kind of vehicle. Zafar however seems much more interested in his cell phone which he is assumed to be watching TV on. This is all obvious to us because we see this. What we don't particularly see is the meaning behind all this. Zafar is in fact the only person with a face that can be made out. He also seems to be the only person that does not belong. These have deeper meanings. Zafar, this wealthy, iconic pop star is able to do what he wants, where he wants. He can go out into the middle of no where and still watch TV from his cellular device. In the case study we read that mobile phones act as a symbol of wealth and we definitely see that here. The blue lines that sweep and curve through the image suggest more than just movement. That suggest a security from the odds. No matter where one goes they are always connected to the mobile network. This is all very interesting how this much meaning can be conveyed from one single image – much more meaning that one originally sees.

Case Study: The Commodification of Human Relations Response

In this case study it focused on Barthes’ description on photography as having two meanings. The study focuses on a mobile phone advertisement and the obvious and hidden meanings within it. It first talks about the obvious, which would be the documentary part of the image. Then the study talks about the hidden meanings within it, which would be what the advertisement is subconsciously saying. I think it is interesting in how there is a very strategic way that advertisements are constructed. I always knew that they had to be general yet specific in order to appeal to the most amount of people that they can. Advertisements try to connect with the viewer, and by connecting with the viewer it persuades them to buying their product. I think it is very strategic for photography to be used in this way because it can evoke meaning in the inanimate object by the surrounding elements in the photograph. I don’t always think that technology can provide the same comforts as another human can, but this advertisement uses key elements that focus the viewer into thinking that it can do that, and more. I enjoyed reading about how much thought goes into an image when it comes to advertisement. The previous reading in the Wells book mentioned how, “Advertisement photography wasn’t its own genre because it mimics every other genre.” I think this quote applies to this advertisement because it seems to have everything summed up into a well thought out image.

Early color film screen tests, 1922--signs of femininity

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/02/08/early_color_film_from_1922_actresses_vamp_for_the_camera.html

Post: Claude Cahun

Therese Lichtenstein: Claude Cahun pg. 91-96

Claude Cahun's work was a shock to many male Surrealist artists.  Many of which were heterosexual men who viewed women as merely muses for their pieces. Cahun took the stereotypical view of women and twisted it by using herself as an androgenic image. Her self portraits show her distorted and almost disturbing.  She also shaves her hair and wears suits to completely alter her gender appearance.

These portraits could have been her longing desire to also have the male privilege's and power in the Western culture.  She radically changes the interpretation of women in photography.  Before, we had only seen women either sexually, a child or a mother figure.  Now we see an artist who has changed her own appearance to an androgynous one.

Her work reminds me much of the theatrical work of Cindy Sherman, who also alters her appearance through makeup masks and wigs, to change people's perspective of her.

Cahun's work was a directional change for a female artist to represent women in another way.  This alteration of the beautiful muse to a confusing question of gender was a way to move away from only seeing women from a select category.

Response: Nesbit

Before reading this text, the term "avant-garde" was always an ambiguous umbrella term that confused me. It is helpful now to know its limitations and applications to the development of photography. I think that the relationship photography's developmental progression had with that of painting is telling. It took time for photography to even be considered for discussion as an art form using the same philosophical terms as painting. However, both disciplines employed expressive descriptions of form such as the use of motion blur by photographers such as the Bragaglias.

The changing subject/emphasis of photography changed as well as the content's interpretation. Stieglitz's The Steerage signaled the shift to an emphasis on significant geometries and began an intellectual extrapolation of the significance thereof. The de-emphasis of the human as central to photography as established by the portrait was changed when photographers began to focus on the objects around them. This ready-made/Dada-esque approach had several interpretations. While Weston's Excusado intended to not criticize high art like Duchamp's Fountain, it revered the toilet as a beautiful form representing cultural advancements. Contrastingly, Moholy-Nagy's photograms were an entirely different approach to photography and the representation of objects.

What I ultimately come to think of after my reading is that with whatever role photography plays for artists, there comes another role that it is expected to fill in the consumer/public sphere in the form of mass media and advertising. This complicates the interpretation of photographs as well as their reasons for production. It is interesting how these two spheres (public and artistic) reconcile and clash.

Haley Taylor

From Lindsay Walsh:

 I enjoyed reading this article because it discusses my 2 favorite aspects about the history of photography. First is the idea of photography becoming an art and the change in photographs and the process behind it. Second is the relation to advertising. 

    After being introduced to the notion that in the 1880's, photography was trying to compete with other fine arts in History of Photography 1, I am glad that we are going more in depth in the second half of the course. I am a photographer, and I really appreciate the whole idea of pictorial photography and the changes the "founders" made to photography to make it an art. Things that seem so basic now like having compositions just like painting, and playing with lights and shadows and forms and lines are all new in the time period we are learning about now and I gain a whole new sense of appreciation for photography because of it and I love learning about it. I found it interesting in the article how the author talked about avant-garde photographers all across the world and how they compare to what other avant-garde photographers were doing. 

    As a Communications Major with a focus in Advertising and Event Planning and an Art History Minor, I was hoping someday the two would relate and I enjoyed reading about something in my major and applying it to my minor. I took a persuasion class last semester and in that class they did not discuss the history of the ideas that artists in the 1900's had on persuasion and visually tricking people to buy products. One quote I found fascinating was by Harry Hollingworth when he said "The lines, forms, relations, colors, and distribution of elements should so far as possible reflect the character of the goods or the mood desired in the reader". All of this is true and what I love about art and advertising is how certain lines and placement of words and images really do define how well people respond to the advertisement. The classes that I have taken in my major did not have the artistic perspective that this article did and I was really interested in learning about this in a  new way. 

Since you're writing on Gatsby anyway...

Why not profit? UConn Reads is sponsoring an essay contest, the prize for which is a semester's worth of free text books!
 http://today.uconn.edu/uconn-reads/2013/02/02/assay-the-essay-contest/?utm_source=DailyDigest

Photography, art and modernity response

In the beginning of Nesbit’s article, it discussed the struggle that photography had being accepted as a legitimate form of art. It talked about the rise of modernism and a group of artists that identified themselves as the Avant Gaurde. I thought it was interesting to see the competition painters/sculptors had with this new form of image making. However as I kept reading I noticed a pattern, just like with anything new it might seem strange, but then you get curious and after you break the boundary of coming into contact with it you like it, a lot. It is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before so then it becomes a fad that gets exhausted, by primarily the painters. Once the painters lose interest the sporadic evolution of photography slows down almost immediately in the 1930s with the surrealists. 

After noticing this pattern I was more drawn to the advertising section of this article. I enjoyed the distortions of truth with the image figuratively and literally. The alteration to images is still used today with all sorts of media. Even though you know that images can be altered in this way people still believe in it as the truth. I think it is this way because of this explosion of photography that happened in such a small amount of time (in relation to painting/sculpture) the public had no choice but to embrace it. Except the only drawback to this was that they were accustomed to photography being a truthful document as their first impression. I suppose that idea just never got modernized like photography did.