In Progress

I recently read an article called “Constructing Photography: Fiction as Cultural Evidence” from the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication. This is for my rhetorical analysis class, in which we are applying rhetorical analytic methods to not only speeches (the traditional object of analysis) but also cultural texts like movies, music, ad campaigns, buildings — you name it, we can analyze it. In this article, the author takes a closer look at the significance of photographs as cultural evidence, tying together contradictions in fact, fiction, memory, and evidence and identifying narrative as the link between them

The author, Hannor Hardt, makes a case for exploring the topic because “photographs are an essential experience of a daily encounter with reality and aid in the construction of worldviews, including visions of photographs as historical evidence, to legitimate ideological claims and support political goals.” In another class I’m taking, we discussed how viewing altered images can actually alter the viewer’s memory of an incident, which makes a strong case for photographs as highly imperfect historical records. The interplay between the photograph and the viewer’s imagination and memory is revealed to be a two-way street, with each influencing the other.

But this is only one aspect of the photograph’s interpretive facets the article explores. Hardt writes: “Under the best of circumstances, photographs constitute a conspiracy of purposes; without knowledge or understanding the social or cultural context in which they are always created, photographs may seem deceptively simple visual expressions, or else they become intricate and complicated observations of individuals with particular insights into biography and history.” In this case, the photograph becomes a living document that transforms under the pressure of the viewer’s background and cultural context operating on it.

Fictive or not, narrative seems to be the way that we make meaning out of the world, which is what Cultural Studies critic Stuart Hall argues constitutes culture. If as Hardt argues, these frameworks are just as applicable to photographs as to language-based objects, then visual objects are just as significant to culture creation as any language-based activity. But even more, the interaction between our memories and the proof we base them on becomes incredibly complicated.

Posted on February 16th, 2009 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Media, School, Uncategorized