Ch. 5 Questions

This week's reading assignment:
- Read Ch. 5, pages 195-215.
- Read Ch. 1 of Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord. See this link for the text: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/16

1. "Read" the following image as a production of spectacle and as a construction of the relationship between celebrity & press.


Nicole Richie with husband & newborn baby.

Midterm Exam

Due: 1 p.m., Thursday, February 26. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Choose 3 out of the following 4 questions to answer. Your answers should be around 400 words or more and typed. Please proofread your answers making sure that there are no misspellings, no grammatical errors, good word choice, etc., as points will be deducted from answers that are unclear or poorly written. You may use your book to answer these questions, however, all thoughts should be expressed in your own words.
Please remember that this is a private endeavor, and your answers should be the result of your own inquiry, not conversations with others.

1. Trace the transition of the documentary photograph from the 19th century to our current conception of documentary photography, making sure to include examples.
What events and photographers have contributed to the way we define documentary photography today?
 Then answer the following questions:

- What are the inherent “problems” of documentary photography?

- How do you distinguish between documentary photographs and art photographs that are documentary? 

- Is it important to distinguish between the two?


2. Discuss the images below in terms of photography’s role in identifying and defining the “Other”. 
Also discuss how these images exemplify Foucault’s theory of knowledge and power. Then answer the following questions:

How does the classification of people according to type still exist in our society today? Give an example.

Do you think it is possible to build an archive of data that is “powerless”? What would that be? Be as creative as you wish.




3. Using the image below, discuss the concept of “objectification” of the female body within photography, as it relates to Freudian psychoanalysis and the male gaze.
Then answer the following:

- How would you define “the female gaze”? Is it different at all from the male gaze?

- Do you think the concept of the male gaze exists outside of a heterosexual framework? How?




















4. Discuss the characteristics of personal portrait photography, specifically the unique relationship that exists between photographer and subject.

- What is power structure within that relationship? How is it different from other photographer-subject relationships?

- How do Robert Rainey’s projects Walmartification and Self Portrait Family subvert that relationship?

Chapter 4 (part 2) Questions:

1. Both of the following are images, even portraits of Joseph Paul Jernigan, whose body was dissected for the Visible Human Project.

What do you think about the ethics of this scientific advancement? Relate these to a discussion of archives and power.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/mpeg/umd_video.mpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20020126123230/www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/deathrow/executed/jernigan.jpg

2. Look at a few of Francesca Woodman's images here:
http://francescawoodman.net/

Read the Peggy Phelan article that has been emailed to you.
Come to class with any questions/thoughts about Phelan's assertion that Woodman's suicide may be viewed as a "gift".

Chapter 4 Question

Do you think that Galton's creation of composite portraiture has a legitimate use in society or will it always be construed into some sort of prejudice.

Finished Ch. 4 question sorry guys!

From an objective look per say the nude body is a natural form, but can be viewed as pleasurable under any circumstance (pornographic, artistic, medically). This being said, there is so much conflict when it comes to viewing the adult nude body, would you view Jock Sturges or Sally Mann's work on the same level (as pleasure) or would you consider it different, why or why not?

In addition, would you view photographing the nude body (male or female) a perverse use of photography if so is it because we have become too uncomfortable with our bodies (as suggested by Mikhail Bakhtin on pg. 173) OR do you think this type of photography has integrated itself into our society and is no longer an issue?

additional Ch. 4 Questions from Lauren

From an objective look per say the nude body is a natural form, but can be viewed as pleasurable under any circumstance (pornographic, artistic, medically). This being said, there is so much conflict when it comes to viewing the adult nude body, would you view Jock Sturges or Sally Mann's work on the same level (as pleasure) or would you consider it different, why or why not?

In addition, would you view photographing the nude body (male or female) a perverse use of photography or have we become too uncomfortable with our bodies as suggested by Mikhail Bakhtin on pg. 173?

Chapter 4 Questions

1. Do you think that the male body is objectified in the same way that the female body is? In what instances? Do you think that the power of this "female gaze" holds as much power as the "male gaze" in our contemporary society?

2. John Berger wrote about the idea of the surveyor and the surveyed in his book Ways of Seeing (1972) .

http://www.scribd.com/doc/243296/Ways-of-Seeing-John-Berger

Using the link above, read pages Chapters 2 (all images) and Chapter 3. Do you agree or disagree with Berger?

Nashville Art

Some good art happening this weekend...

Thursday, 5 - 6:30 pm, artist talk at 5 pm
Ron Lambert, Photography & Sculpture
Sarratt Gallery, Sarratt Student Center, Vandy.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattgallery/directions.html

Friday, 6 pm, Watkins Juried Student Show!

Friday, 6-9 pm (performance at 7 pm), Gallery talk on Sunday at 3 pm
Unusual Sympathy- Carlin Wing (Watkins photo faculty) & Amelia Winger-Bearskin
Gallery F @ Vanderbilt
- a story of a Creek Indian boy in the home of a president
- an installation of drawings, video, original songs, text & photography revolving around the Creek Indian boy, Lyncoya, orphaned on the battlefield & adopted by Andrew Jackson
http://www.scarrittbennett.org/giftshop/galleryf.aspx

Saturday night:
Sharon Hart (Watkins photo faculty) will have an opening at Tinney Contemporary.
http://tinneycontemporary.com/

The Very Average Arbus

When Sontag discusses the comparisons between Diane Arbus and Andy Warhol (and their behavioral tendencies when it came to fame and the freakishly absurd) she ends up considering Arbus' contrast from the boorish life she lived, and her desire to photograph the unseen oddity, relatively 'quaint.' What do you think happens to our contemporary visual culture when abnormality, freakishness, 'evil,' and anything else that had been previously excluded from normal society, is now very much a boring commodity of television/popular culture? And why do you think the idea of 'Shock' has been subsumed into the status quo?

Additional Chapter 3 Question

Do you believe that those photographs taken by everyday people for personal use, such as family albums, are of more, less, or equal importance to those photographs taken by professionals? Do you view them differently?
In addition, in the excerpt from Susan Sontag's On Photography, based on Whitman's idea that everything exhibits beauty and is of equal importance, she writes that "No moment is more important than any other moment; no person is more interesting than any other person." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?