Portfolio Task 5- How Do We Read a Photograph?

In approximately 500 words- summarise the authors main points then conduct a brief critical reading of a photograph of your choosing in the way the text suggests.

In the text ‘How to read a photograph?’ the author suggests that we not only see a photograph, which is a passive act of recognition, we read the image not only as a photograph but as a text.

Victor Burgin insists-

‘The intelligibility of the photograph is no simple thing; photographs are texts inscribed in terms of what we may call ‘photographic discourse’…’

This is saying that the image is not only an image or what it may seem on the surface. At first glance it may be, but the meaning and connotations within a photograph and its subjects have much deeper meaning. The image presented on the surface often differs from true realities. The photograph presents an ideological subject. This is the photographic language within the image; it presents different interpretations of the world/people and lives. What is really happening beneath the superficial stance or pose. Mundane and seemingly simple scenes are a lot more complicated than at first look. There is a deeper cultural/ political/social context once looked at closely; photographs with seemingly clear meaning can often be unclear and need a deeper reading of their photographic language.

‘A former slave displaying a horn used to call slaves’

This photograph was taken by Russell Lee in 1939 in Texas. The title of the photograph reveals a much deeper meaning to the image than first imagined. The man seems relaxed at first look at the photograph but he is definitely not that. He becomes a strong figure, being able to hold this object which represents such horrific memories. The photographic language and text presents a whole history of abuse and discrimination within black people and slavery. Whilst a slave it would have been unimaginable to think that this man would one day be sat holding the horn, which is so much more than just a horn, it is a symbol of a horrific time in history of abuse and racism. It is significant that the man is holding this horn because of what it represents, the oppression and ridicule. Russell Lee knows what he is capturing here, as in the text says,

'One never 'takes' a photograph in any passive sense. To take is active. The photographer imposes, steals, re creates the scene/seen according to the cultural discourse'

Lee wants to engage a deeper reading of the man and context of the image, he encourages this deeper reading of the photograph, the photograph can be read as a text with so much history behind the subject. The photograph is certainly not passive as this quote suggests, there is a cultural presence captured not just 'taken'.

The man is looking into the distance, possibly imagining the sound of the horn and being called in for work. He is the centre of the image on these wooden steps which is significant as before he would have been a background extra a photograph, as a slave he was not respected. The door is wide open, and the padlock unlocked, this presenting his freedom finally. But is he ever free? The memories still there forever, this awful history will never be erased.