4AAVC105

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATIONS

WEEK 2 LECTURE: STILL IMAGES

DR. KRISTEN SCHUSTER

Lecture Capture
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
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 WEEK 2 LEARNING OUTCOME:
• Students will practice applying theories discussed in
‘Ways of Seeing’ and develop a foundational
understanding of Berger’s main aesthetic theories.

• Students will learn how to apply theories and critiques

of mechanical reproduction to analyses of their
experiences and practices creating and/or consuming
images
CLOSE ANALYSIS OF JOHN BERGER’S
‘WAY’S OF SEEING’
 DISCUSS THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

• The next slide will have three images.

• Turn to your neighbor on the RIGHT.
• For about five minutes discuss how these images are
similar, and how they are different.
 WHAT DID WE JUST DO?
• Photography, combines mechanical and chemical processes.

• Photography captures scenes – but, like any media, these scenes

require interpretation.

• So, how do we learn to interpret what we see in photographs?

• John Berger was very interested in this question. Let’s explore his
essay in more detail.
 Our irresistible feeling that the
photographic process is something
magical has a genuine basis.

No one takes an easel painting to be in any

sense co-substantial with its subject; it
only represents or refers. But a
photograph is not only like its subject, a
homage to the subject.

It is part of , an extension of that subject;

and a potent means of acquiring it, of
gaining control over it.
c.1520. Woodcut from a Venetian edition of the
Divine Comedy (Berger, 8)
 An image is a sight which has been recreated or
reproduced. It is an appearance, or a set of
appearances, which has been detached from the
place and time in which it first made its
appearance and preserved - for a few moments or
a few centuries.

Every image embodies a way of seeing. Even a

photograph. For photographs are not, as is often
assumed, a mechanical record.

Every time we look at a photograph, we are

aware, however slightly, of the photographer
selecting that sight from an infinity of other Alfred Stieglitz,
possible sights Reflections: Night- New York, 1897.

(Berger, 10)
 The past is never there waiting to be
discovered, to be recognized for exactly
what it is.
History always constitutes the relation
between a present and its past.
Consequently fear of the present leads to
mystification of the past.
The past is not for living in; it is a well of
conclusions from which we draw in order
to act. Cultural mystification of the past
entails a double loss.
Works of art are made unnecessarily
remote. And the past offers us fewer
Thomas Cole
The Course of Empire, 1836
conclusions to complete in action
(Berger, 11).
The invention of the camera changed the way
men saw. The visible came to mean
something different to them.

This was immediately reflected in painting.

For the Impressionists the visible no longer
presented itself to man in order to be seen.

On the contrary, the visible, in continual flux,

became fugitive.

For the Cubists the visible was no longer what

confronted the single eye, but the totality of
possible views taken from points all round
the object (or person) being depicted.
Paul Cezanne
(Berger, 18). Mt. St. Victoire, 1870
In the age of pictorial reproduction the meaning of paintings is no
longer attached to them; their meaning becomes transmittable:
that is to say it, becomes information of a sort, and, like all
information, it is either put to use or ignored; information carries
no special authority within itself.

When a painting is put to use, its meaning is either modified or

totally changed. One should be quite clear about what this
involves.

It is not a question of reproduction failing to reproduce certain

aspects of an image faithfully; it is a question of reproduction
making it possible, even inevitable, that an image will be used for
many different purposes and that the reproduced image, unlike
an original work, can lend itself to them all.

(Berger, 24).
 NOW THAT WE’VE DISCUSSED BERGER’S ESSAY:
REFLECTION & EVALUATION
YOU CAN USE THIS EXERCISE IN YOUR FIRST ESSAY!

• Everyone close their laptops and put away their

phones (if you do research on the next images, you’ll
spoil the exercise).

• For about three minutes write down your first

impressions of the image.
For about five minutes, turn to your neighbor on your LEFT and
discuss what you think is happening in this photo.
YOU CAN USE THIS EXERCISE IN YOUR FIRST ESSAY!
• This photo was taken at the 1968 Olympic games, which
were held in Mexico City
• 1968 was the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States, and Australia had strict Apartheid laws.
• This is photo of the medal ceremony for the 200 metre
race (track and field). The men on the podium are: Peter
Norman (Australia), Tommie Smith (USA) and John Carlos
(USA).
• Until recently, many media stories either ignored Peter
Norman or maligned him for not showing support for
Smith and Carlos.
• Now, Smith and Carlos, along with Norman’s family have
advocated for a more accurate description of Norman’s
presence on the medal podium
• Concurrently, there have been a more open and critical
discussions of Smith and Carlos’ experiences after the
1968 Olympic games.
 BONUS ACTIVITY: PHOTOGRAPHY & REPRODUCTION
YOU CAN USE THIS EXERCISE IN YOUR FIRST ESSAY!
• Think back to our first exercises finding similarities and differences between different
types of images.
• Also think back to our discussions of reproduction, subjects and memory.
• In the next slide I’m going to show you a digital reproduction of a painting.
• This painting is on display at the National Gallery, which is literally just up the road
from us. If you have time:
• Take a few minutes to look at the online version of the painting and make
notes about your impression.
• Then, go to the National Gallery and find the painting. Write about your
experience.
• Compare and contrast your experiences
• While you are writing about your experiences, reflect on whether you agree
or disagree with John Berger’s argument from ‘Ways of Seeing’
THE GARE ST-LAZARE BY CLAUDE MONET
Location: National Gallery, Room 44
Link: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-the-gare-st-lazare