When I look at a still image, moving film or watch a theatrical production I appear to scan the whole scene and in parallel forensically see(k) the details. I notice continuity issues and items that should not be there or if they are there how they could be better placed in the image. I recall designing room interiors at school and for a time as a young adult stage managing, (conceiving and building sets, setting lighting and sound, making costumes, placing props etc.) so I guess I have always done this. Translated into my photography composition is important either when the image is taken or if there is not time when capturing a moment, then later when processing.

Going with Gestalt in looking at the whole as well as its parts I am always keen to see if the whole is other/greater (depending on your translation of the German). I think finding one or two images after taking a series that stand out for me represents the other/greater impact the whole has on these occasions.

From a different point of view my gaze has its downsides. I may be engrossed in looking at the physical detail, signs, i.e. the ‘signifiers’ that make up the whole, and as a consequence be slow to realise or miss the ‘signified’, the meaning of the whole.

Gestalt Theory of Visual Perception. Available at: http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/gestalt.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. [accessed 28-02-2018].

Hugh. December 21 2009. The Rhetoric of the Image-Roland Barthes (1964). Available at: https://tracesofthereal.com/2009/12/21/the-rhetoric-of-the-image-roland-barthes-1977/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. [accessed 28-02-2018].

This week we looked at advertising, where this has been successful (Dominant), where there have been unintended interpretations of messages carried in the images and by text (Oppositional) and where the advert has both meanings/interpretations possible but has till met with some success (Negotiated). In doing this we were signposted to Katherine Frith and Hong Chen’s (2006, pp191-200) stages for reading adverts (surface, intended and cultural meanings).

Dominant
Vorsprung Durch Technic translates as Progress Through Technology. Little did Sir John Hegarty know that in adopting his found by accident catch phrase he would not only have found a marketing slogan that has become a trademark for Audi but also one that would “transform the image of the entire country” (Rice-Oxley, 2012, 18 September).
For me this catch phrase accompanied by images of the Audi vehicles in still and video fomats says what it is and does on the tin. The surface meaning is clear. Attention to technological development produces great cars. This is clearly the pitch Audi chose to market with and the risk paid off. Having experienced driving an Audi I am impressed with the engineering and if money permitted would gladly chose one again. In terms of cultural impact there is now a well known stereotypical understanding of Germany and Germans as synonymous with and at the forefront of technological development and able to make well engineered, efficient, reliable products for both domestic and commercial use. The timing of this slogan came at a time post second world war when Germany needed to find a way of improving international relations. This innovative addition to Audi’s advertising has made a significant contribution in that direction.

Oppositional
In contrast Bloomingdales made a huge error in releasing an advert in a holiday catalogue, seemingly before market testing (or not tested with a representative sample of the population). Two models wearing clothes suggestive of smart young professionals were posed such that she looked out of the image away from him and was laughing and he looked with a serious, potentially intentional expression at her with the strap line ‘Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking’. The advert was immediately read as encouraging of date rape. Blomingdales could only issue an apology as there was not way to retract the advert from an already published and distributed catalogue. In this case the advertiser buried the intended meaning with an unintended encouragement message to men to use drugs in order to rape women. The advert is culture bound in so far as both models were caucasian and is targeted marketing by virtue of using young models dressed in expensive looking ‘western style’ clothes they might aspire to. Someone with very poor judgment, out of touch with the reality of current societal concerns, must have approved this advert. As a final point, not having seen the catalogue, I am left not knowing whether the advert was for holidays, clothes or eggnog.

Negotiated
Originally the Andrex toilet paper advert was due to be presented with a little girl running through her home trailing a roll behind her. The puppy was introduced instead as this was thought to be less encouraging of poor and wasteful behaviour. Having endured since 1972 the advert continues to feature Labrador puppies as a brand logo. I placed this advert as negotiated because I remember when it first came out there was some reaction to wastefulness and the encouragement to engage in such behaviours as children liked the puppy and emulated what it did. Since then the puppy and Andrex have become synonymous and accepted as advertising toilet roll just as the Dulux dog became associated with paints. Interestingly both animals are light coloured and typical pets in western societies. This suggests the products were aimed at people in advantaged societies who could afford toilet rolls and to decorate their homes. In both these cases there were intended meanings, to market toilet rolls and paint, unintended meanings to use playful techniques involving trained animals (to which there could be objections from animal cruelty organisations) in ways that could be picked up and repeated by children, and then ultimately a consolidated association of product and animal such that they are synonymous in people’s minds. The revival of the Dulux dog in 2011 had the unintended effect of also reviving interest in and breeding of the old English sheepdog which was becoming endangered as a species in part attributed to the rise in popularity of handbag size dogs (Alleyne, 2013).

Implications
What have I learned from this exercise? With some familiarity with advertising (e.g. Cigarini, 2014), I have been aware of these possibilities. However I have not often thought about them in relation to my photography. I am aware that some of my images are more likeable and are received with the responses I anticipated when sharing them where as others are not as well liked as evidenced on social media. I am also aware that I filter out images that might have unintended consequences. For example, when photographing an event or street scene and finding images of children in them when I had not permission to include them or when the image might suggest something is acceptable when it is not (e.g. creative presentation of distasteful debris on beaches). However feedback from peers, tutors and others around me shows that I am not always correct in my anticipatory deselection of such ‘beautiful and intruiging’ debris images, and that my messages may still be effective through unexpected routes of presentation (Barker,2017).

Andrex. Available at: https://www.andrex.co.uk/75th-anniversary/. [accessed 02-03-2018].

Alleyne, Richard.18 Feb 2013. Power of TV – Revival of Dulux Dog adverts inspire revival in breed. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9877002/Power-of-TV-Revival-of-Dulux-Dog-adverts-inspire-revival-in-breed.html. [accessed 04-03-2018].

Barker, Mandy. 2017. Beyond Drifting. Imperfectly Known Animals. Recent and Unique Species Discovered in the Cove of Cork. United Kingdom: Overlapse.

Cigarini, Johnny. 2014. Confessions of a Kings Road Cowboy: Memoirs of a terrible name-dropper. Leicestershire: Matador.

Frith, Katherine T. & Cheng, Hong. 2006. Symbolic Meanings of Advertisements in China. In Hong Chen and Kara Chan (Eds.), Advertising and Chinese Society: Impacts and Issues. Copenhagen Business School Press: Copenhagen.

Gajanan, Mahita. 11 Nov 2015. Bloomingdale’s apologizes for apparent date rape joke in holiday catalog ad. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/11/bloomingdales-apologizes-holiday-ad-date-rape-joke. [accessed 28-02-2018].

Rice-Oxley, Mark. 2012. Vorsprung durch Technik – ad slogan that changed how we saw Germany. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/18/vorsprung-durch-technik-advertising-germany. [accessed 28-02-2018].

Sweney, Mark. 2010. Audi wins seven-year battle over ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ trademark. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jan/22/audi-vorsprung-durch-technik-trademark. [accessed 28-02-2018].

Activity: “Linda Hutcheon (2003: 117) thinks that contemporary photography ‘exploits and challenges both the objective and the subjective, the technological and the creative’.
Post a response, including visual examples, discussing:
• How you balance the ‘objective and the subjective’.
• The relationship between the ‘technological’ and the ‘creative’:
◦ Is it a dichotomy or a continuum?
◦ How does viewing context influence this relationship?
◦ Whether this is important to you.”

Referring to Wall’s (Horne, 2012) description of photographers as hunters or farmers, with the former tracking and capturing prey and the latter creating images, I think I am both (Horne, 2012; O’Hagan, 2015). Not in the sense of both hunter and farmer at the same time but in the variety of genres of photography that I chose to be part of. For example, capturing wildlife, land and seascapes and items found on beaches, seizing the moment can be a paramount driver. They are unplanned, almost instantaneous and my rapid response is to catch something using a metaphorical weapon (but without harm) as it may never be seen again (at least not by me).

However, some others of these images could be accused of being both hunter and farmer in the sense that I see a land or seascape or a pieces of beach debris and take time to decide how to compose the image taking context and lighting into account.

My farmer inclinations are resonant in images I have constructed more recently in pursuit of course activities and project creations. In addition, I include here, revisiting places I have been to and imaged before with developed ideas about what else I wish to take and how I want to take and process the results.

To better understand how I think about the dimensions of subjectivity/objectivity and technology/creativity I created a visual representation relating the two dimensions, which I see as continuum (Hutcheon, 2003,117). Although entirely subjective I placed the main photographic genres within this diagram to see where each in my opinion would lie. Interestingly a diagonal emerged running from mid objective/technology to mid subjective/creative. Others may place the genres differently of course. In relating this to my work I would place hunter tendencies in the former quadrant and farmer in the latter quadrant, with images that have tinges of both approaches towards the centre.

I do have reservations about pigeon holing particular photographic practices as resonant with hunters or farmers. Placing oneself and others into categories or boxes may unnecessarily limit development that may ultimately be greater in impact (visually and/or commercially) than would be achievable by being known and perpetuating this understanding as coming from one place. If there is a need to classify (as seems to be part of the human condition to do so in making sense of our world) then I would add many more labels in a multi-layered complex network of interconnected activity.

As an exercise I have found this useful for decision making in relation to my project ‘Beauty and the Beach…’ as well as my photography more generally. I can see that the two dimensions referred to by Hutcheon (subjective/objective and technology/creativity) placed in the 2×2 diagram and interrelating with the concepts Wall proposed of hunter and farmer, provide a contextual framework from which I can move into further experimentation in the quest for a focus, style or niche in relation to my project.

Horne, Rebecca. 2012. Holly Andres, ‘Farmer’ of Photographs’ . The Wall Street Journal. (3rd February 2012). Available at: https://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2012/02/03/holly-andres-farmer-of-photographs/. [accessed 10-03-2018].

Hutcheon, Linda. 2003. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

O’Hagan, Sean. 2015. Jeff Wall: I’m haunted by the idea that my photography was all a big mistake. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/03/jeff-wall-photography-marian-goodman-gallery-show. [accessed 10-03-2018].