30 October 2017
Barrett Chapter 5
This chapter starts off quite interesting. We've moved on from simply categorizing photographs to deciphering the meaning of photographs in different contexts. I'm certainly a fan of deciphering meaning in art, and context is always a helpful tool in doing so. What was interesting, though, was the contexts themselves. Barret describes several photographs and their meaning under three different contexts: internal, original, and external.
Internal context is defined as what is in the photograph and what meaning can be deciphered from it. Barrett discusses a photo of a wagon and a body covered in clothe laying in the street. It is clear a child was killed in an accident. Original context is the context of the photographer's life and what situation the photograph was taken in. I was really struck by Barrett's description of a photograph of napalm attack on children. It was horrifying without even seeing it. Finally, there's external conflict, which is the context the photograph is presented in, i.e. a gallery, a newspaper, a billboard, etc.
All of these contexts are then applied to Barbara Kruger's "Untitled (Surveillance)". The photo and its meanings are discussed through extensive description of the photograph itself as well as the photographer who created it and the situations its been presented in. All of this gives the photograph a much deeper appeal and fleshes out the multiple interpretations one could have for the photograph. This was probably my favorite part of the reading.
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