Visual Language and Narrative and Context

I have a degree in English.  I have trawled my way through Dickens, Defoe, Spencer’s The Fairie Queene, medieval delights and Anglo Saxon battlegrounds.  I’ve been enlightened by Shakespeare and the American poets; liberated by Yeats. 

I have spent many years since graduating working within the confines of the rules applied to the English language.  I have written copy, features, proposals, information leaflets, letters, poems and the odd short story.  I have overcome the mental block that stood in my way when faced with grammar and its application.

 

I have found a way to use the tools available to me.  And in turn those tools have helped me find out more about who I am, what life experiences have taught me and where I belong in the world around me.

As I approach the end of this module The Art of Photography I know what makes me tick and although I can communicate that through words I now have to explore the reality of communicating it visually.  Visual language is an entirely new proposition. 

I’ve been reading Maria Short’s book Context and Narrative and several questions have arisen about my work to date and where I go to from here.  How do I communicate my ideas visually? How do I breathe life into a concept? How do I ensure audience engagement?  What technical considerations do I need to contemplate?

In her book Short describes what’s needed to be a photographer…”you need to be passionate about communicating ‘something’, as this will inform every choice you make in relation to your work.” She continues, “you also need to interested in the world around you; you need to be interested in things beyond photography. The substance of the work is in your commitment to your subject, as this will show in your photographs, this commitment will make your photographs breathe; this is how your personalise your work.  If you are clear about why you are photographing your subject then you can choose how to photograph your subject, and in turn this should help your audience interpret the photograph.”

This is the way you communicate your ideas; this is visual language; this is how you develop your voice.

There’s a three-way relationship between photographer, subject and audience – a communication triangle.  The treatment of the subject by the photographer and the visual language applied has a direct influence on how the audience interprets the picture in front of them or if they care to interpret it at all. 

Picture making is not divorced from the photographer’s life experiences and beliefs.  In many images the influence of the photographer is apparent.  They construct the image, it is a trace of what they see and how they want the audience to render meaning from it.

What is a photograph?

It is an image of the past, a moment that was captured and frozen in time.  It is a document of what happened or what was present. 

Photographs can be simply records, like medical or forensic images, or they can be something more.  They can tell a story.

 

The key to a successful photograph is engaging with the subject. 

A photograph is a way of expressing an idea, of developing a concept and of storytelling.

What is narrative?

A narrative is basically a way of telling a story.  It usually has a beginning, middle and end.  In photography, a visual narrative works slightly differently.  It can have the basic structure of beginning, middle and end or it might simply imply what has happened in the past or is about to occur.  It may be a fictional interpretation of a given person, place, thing or moment. 

Linear narrative

In photography a narrative can take be communicated in a linear sense, but it can also be cyclical.  It can be a series or images or a single one.  It can be a collection of images that only make sense when brought together. 

Visual continuity

Images can be linked by using visual continuity whether that is weather, subject, location or another linking factor. 

Sequential narratives

Narratives can also be sequential stories or journeys like a pilgrimage that takes you from A to B. 

Visual punctuation

Visual punctuation includes the breaking of the sequence by including a black and white image or one of a different size – something that interrupts the flow.  It can be a one off. 

Juxtaposition can help raise an argument or present a question; the tension between hot and cold, light and dark for example.

The eye of the camera also plays a role.  Is the eye a fourth wall, the eye of the subject or the eye of the viewer/audience?

Symbols and signs

The study of signs is called semiotics. 

To familiarise use with the models and terminology we can look at the work of two philosophers.

Ferdinand de Saussure

Dyadic approach.  The signifier (form which the sign takes) and the signified (the idea/concept it represents). 

Charles Sanders Peirce

Three tiered approach

Representament – the form the sign takes

Interpretant – the sense made of the sign

Object – to which the sign refers. 

Barthes on a more basic level looked at the ‘studium’ which he described as the general interest in an image and the ‘punctum’ which arrests the attention. 

Symbol

Something that represents something else.  In this case the signifier does not represent the signified – this relationship must be learned like rules or language.

Icons

The signifier is perceived as resembling the signified or imitating the signified.  For example, in a portrait, cartoon, with gestures or sound effects etc.

Indexicality

Indexical signifier is physically or casually linked to the signified.  This link can be observed or inferred.  Natural signs like smoke = heat, footprints = footsteps. 

Indexicality is very important to photography because it is a literal ‘trace’ of the original subject according to Peirce.

 Visual Metaphor

Use of a subject as a visual metaphor for something the photographer wishes to express.  This can be seen in the work of Short herself in her collection Gall. In this body of work she uses a horse as a visual metaphor to “express how I felt about the challenges that faced young women in relation to their sense of identity and social placing.”

This enabled her to raise questions such as “when is protection suppression? When is freedom a cliché?”

Enigma and truth

An enigma is something inexplicable.  We can capture something that looking back can never be explained like someone’s actions or an event. 

The truth always brings up the question of ethics in photography.  The camera never lies has long been discounted and even more so today.  Photographers are often faced with situations where visually strong images are captured in a fast moving environment that present questions surrounding ethics and integrity. 

These fleeting moments are part of the visual language and may represent an idea or concept that can become emblematic or metaphorical.