I did a presentation on reading/looking at photographs today. I set the context with a quote from John Berger: ‘A photograph is a meeting place where the interests of the photographer, the photographed, the viewer, and those who are using the photographs are often contradictory. These contradictions both hide and increase the natural ambiguity of the photographic image.’
The aim was to improve our critical appreciation and understanding of the photographs. It was not about saying what are good or bad photographs. The presentation was in three parts.
- Shaping our reactions and reading, including ourselves, the subject, the context and the time we take over it.
- Considering five approaches to looking at photographs from John Szarkowski, Susan Sontag, David Hurn & Bill Jay, Ian Jeffrey and Geoff Dyer.
- Open discussion of photographs by Michael Kenna, Simon Murphy, Edward Steichen, Harry Gruyaert and Amit Eshel.
I threw in three random thoughts at the end.
- ‘For a work of art to succeed it must go deeper than a mere visual record.’ Frances Spalding
- ‘A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.’ Diane Arbus
- ‘Photographs, which cannot themselves explain anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduction, speculation, and fantasy.’ Susan Sontag
