Please make a 9-slide PowerPoint
presentation, with 100 speaker notes for each slide. Use at least 3 other
scholarly sources.
The presentation is for a history/theory class that requires a
15-minute PowerPoint and discussion on the reading in my own words, although
citation is allowed when needed. I just need to talk about what the reading was
about, if I agree with what is being said, my own interpretation, thoughts, and
possibly other images by the photographers; to help understand their vision of
the text / hidden codes that images have. It’s a pretty good reading.
How to read a photograph by Graham Clark:https://www.photopedagogy.com/graham-clarke.html
Comments from the teacher:
“1. There should be an introduction
My understanding of the reading
2. Focus on the 3 Photographers.
Main Point I:
– Diane Arbus – Identical Twins, 1967
Add only that photo so it’s visual when I talk about it and
specific points.
Main Point II:
– Matthew Brady – Matthew Brady Standing by Tree, 1865
Add that photo and a breakdown of the decoding of the image.
Main Point III:
– Lee Freidlander – Route 9W New York , 1969
The slide should provide an Introduction – a breakdown of the
reading.
Who is Graham Clarke?
Graham Clarke is a Reader in Literary and Image Studies, at the
University of Kent, Canterbury.
This chapter is mainly about Clarke reading a selection of
images. ‘How do WE read a photograph?”
Clarke looks into every single part of a photograph to create
his interpretation of the reading,
Clarke begins to talk about how looking at a photograph is quite
similar to looking at a text, this then leads him on to reading in a semiotic
way, the language of signs. Visual communications.
Graham looks into every single part of a photograph to create
his interpretation, of how to read a photograph.
Examples I saw online for this specific reading :
These are the key points that I gained from this reading.
– Complexity of the relationship between the viewer of the
photograph gives way to various interpretations
– We read photographs like text: they are full of codes
– The photograph achieves meaning through what has been called a
Photograph discourse: a language of codes that involves its own grammar and
syntax
– Victor Burgin: Photographs have a complex intertextuality
– Photographs contain messages which mean different things to
different viewers-
– It is a product of the photographer
– Every photograph has a deeper and wider subject than what
first meets the eye, whether that be in context within a future, history, or,
personal beliefs
– Not the real world – just an interpretation or a mirror
Summary / Conclusion
Feelings… thoughts…
A photograph’s story is shaped by the person viewing the
photograph. We read images from the perspective of our worldviews and values;
people are all too different to read images the same way.
Although a photograph has an intention and provoked a reaction,
we will always interpret it differently, especially if there is no written literacy.
Photographs provide insights but only if the visual rhetoric.
Some photographs aren’t meant to be more than simply an image
that will remind us of what we saw and what we experienced. Even the most
representative photograph is a version of reality interpreted by the
photographer.