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How to look at pictures Will Barton
Here’s a picture
• What is this?• A still taken from a
broadcast of an amateur video
• How do we read it?• Why does it have such
an impact?• What other pictures is it
like?
Disasters and horrors
Spectacularity• Challenger Space Shuttle
disaster• January 28, 1986• Seven crew members
killed• Live on TV• Still image selected
from professional live coverage
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_10T4UYpzV8
Titanic
• 15 April 1912• 1517 lives lost• Contemporary drawing• 1997 Film• Which image has more
impact?• The modern image is
based on a contemporary artist’s impression
Hiroshima
• 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945
• 80,000 killed outright• Total casualties 90,000–
140,000 • Professional (official)
still photograph
Shock ‘n’ Awe• Baghdad March 21, 2003• No official casualty figures
released – “Civilian casualties minimised”
• Oxford Research Group Iraq Watch estimated 6,616 civilian deaths
• Still image from TV coverage
• What does this picture look like?
John Martin
• Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 1852
• The Great Day of His Wrath 1874
• VERY BIG oil paintings created to display tom large paying audiences
• Biblical themes of violent destruction
Joseph Wright of Derby1734-1797
• Coalbrookdale by Night• Ironforge• Large oil paintings• Similar lighting effects
to Martin to convey the power and terror of the industrial revolution
At the video store…
Games and Music
Towers - Collapsing towers are symbols of pride brought low
Pearl Harbournews on top, Hollywood below
Which story ?• Challenger – live horror
news• Titanic – unsinklable• Hiroshima – death from the
skies• Shock and Awe – terrorism• John Martin – Wrath of God• Falling Towers – Pride
humbled• Pearl Harbour – surprise
attack
Reading Pictures
• Photography and Painting
• Ways of Seeing• Visual Literacy• Staged photography:
Robert Doisneau
Mr and Mrs Andrews (about 1750)
Thomas GAINSBOROUGH 1727 - 1788
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng6301
The Arnolfini Betrothal (1434)Jan VanEyck, Died: 1441
• http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/largeImage?workNumber=NG186
Photography• Derives from the
tradition of painting• Shape, presentation,
composition, subject
Robert Doisneau
• 1950 Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville )
• Connotation and Denotation
• Unreliable evidence – staged photographs and set-ups
How to read a picture
• What is it? How was it made? Who made it? What was it made for?
• Where is it? Why am I looking at it now?• What sort of picture is it? What other pictures is it
like?• What is the meaning of the picture? What does it
make me think about?• What are the signifiers and what do they signify?• What denotation and connotation are taking place?
Reading
• John Berger – Ways of Seeing• Roland Barthes – Image, Music, Text• Ernst Gombrich – The Story of Art
• Better still, don’t just read about pictures – go to an art gallery and look at some.