A Photograph Says So Much

The photo graph that I chose to discuss is from when my mom was a teenager/early twenties. The photograph is Sephira toned. She is standing by herself directly in the middle of the shot and it is summer, so she is wearing shorts and a tank top. Her hair is very long, reaching to almost her waist and pin straight, it is parted directly down the middle. She is wearing a huge smile and behind her there is a dirt bike/motorcycle. The bike and my mom are outside. How do I know all this if I wasn't there, or in this case even born yet?

I know all this because of my moms memory, and what she recalls from seeing this photo. Photos are specific to time and place. This photograph was taken at a specific time at a certain place and it combined the technology of the camera "capturing" this moment with the actual activity of my mom standing with this bike. This photograph became a social act. She was out riding a bike or about o go for a ride and somebody thought that it was an important or significant enough of a moment that they wanted to be able to not only remember how they recall it, but also through the use of the actual event. Time stood still and stands still in this photo.

When I first saw this picture I was very surprised because first of all my mom looks so young and I couldn't believe how long her hair was or what the style was at this point in time. Which would be about 1965-ish. The second thing I noticed right away was the fact that there was a motorcycle behind her. This surprised me because my mom has always told me and continues to tell me to stay off of bikes and how unsafe they are. I love the speed and openness of being on a bike. I never knew that my mom did when she was my age as well. I asked her what the bike was doing in the photo, to which she replied with a smile; that she use to ride bikes all the time. It was something all the kids did at that time and how much she loved it. She even told me how when she meet my dad he rode every once in a while because his dad had bikes. I never knew any of this, nor would I have ever guessed correct if you asked me. My dad to me has always been "Mr. business" and not very much of a risk taker type. My mom then went on to explain the fashion choices and etc. She remembered all this and was able to recall all of her feelings and emotions about so much just from this one photo because photos are artifacts that help us remember our bodily presence.

Upon seeing this photo my mom remembered exactly what she was thinking and feeling when it was taken. She was able to recall other stories and moments from seeing this picture and we were able to connect in some weird way from this photo.

It is said that not just the actual photos but the act of taking the photos play a role in how we remember certain events in our lives. "Not only do photographs, but the act of taking photographs, has a role in the way we remember important events in our lives; it is a ritual", I take from this that we as a society have come to almost rely on technology and cameras and the photograph to mark and remember important moments in our lives. It has become a 'ritual' to take pictures at weddings, birthdays,holidays,proms,etc. The ritual and act of taking a photo almost marks its significance.

When Films Speak Without Words

The film I chose to review a 5 minute clip of was, Empire Records. This film is one of my all time favorites. A little background about this movie; It is a day in the life of the employees of a record store that is about to be bought out by a furniture store. The manager almost had enough money to out buy him but one of the employees gambled it away. On this particular day a "rockstar" Rex Manning comes to do a signing. The clip in which I am going to talk about is prior to the star getting there and the employees setting up his signing area.
The mise en scence or the making the scence is varied. First the people are all over the place because they are jamming to a CD while setting up, they are singing and dancing and have props such as chairs, tables, posters. There is also a line and crowd of "fans" in the store.
The first shot is of Marc( an employee) coming down the stairs, the camera is below eye level and a wide shot when Marc is at the top of the stairs. Then Marc runs down the stairs and in doing so the camera zooms in on him and does ann extreme close up as he is talking. The camera is also now at eye level. These two shots are with Marc only. There is then a cut in the scene and we are now seeing Rex Manning.
Rex Manning makes an entrance and is sitting at a table. The line of fans begins to come up one by one to get his autograph. The camera is above his eye level at a medium shot to show from the "view" of the standing fan. Then the camera cuts to the fan speaking and it is another medium shot that is below eye level to show or give the perception from rex's view as he is sitting. There are several shots and ranges going on in just this one segment form this movie.
All of these elements and language of the film help to give the movie a realistic feel and add to the dimensions of the film. The use of close ups or the use of angles can "talk" to the viewer in the sense that they can indicate importance, feelings, and directions of the characters without them even speaking.

Words can Say it When We Can't

"Words are the ultimate abstraction"

When I first heard this saying I was a little confused as to what it meant. I have always found words to be the best way of expressing myself and the most effective way for me to communicate. This does not just mean "talking" with words, for me it is using words mixed with photos or images. Using words in poems or song lyrics, or added with an image has always been to me a direct and CLEAR way of saying what I felt. Then while learning about text and words in class I began to consider how the idea of words being the "ultimate" abstraction is could be an apparent contradiction.

The idea of words being an abstraction on their own and then adding the idea of textual design and fonts and how they then add additional meanings is a little overwhelming at first. Thinking about the additional meanings of the textual design itself and what that is "saying" to someone or the font that is used is "saying" something to people in addition to the actual spelled out word and what that means to people, so essentially to one person ONE word could hold the meaning of 3 different things. Each element that went into making this "word" and how it appears to us means something, but the meanings are not an abstraction they are clear meanings to us as individuals. So the saying the words are the "ultimate" abstraction would appear to be far from what words really are; which is something clear and distinct in meaning. Clear in the definition of the word, clear in how the textual design means or portrays a meaning on its own, and the font shows meaning or implies something as well. One object 3 separate , clear, meanings. That would make words clearly NOT an abstraction.

I think in order to understand the idea of the contradiction you have to have some knowledge of texts and fonts to be able to see or know that they too, in themselves have a meaning. Personally, words will always be a way for me to be able to communicate by using them with other forms of images. But words will always now have a meaning deeper than what they just spell out.

Say "cheese"

This photo taken from www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com does not fit what we "traditionally" see for a family photo. However, a few things are similar to what we would normally see. I will start with the few things that are common in this picture and most other family portraits.

All the family members are wearing the same type of outfit so that they are dressed the same. They are all wearing a type of white shirt and blue denim jeans. The dad and the boy children all have short sleeves while the mom and daughter had 3-quarter sleeves. They all chose a common background color of blue. This is about all that is normal about this picture.

What first struck me as odd about this picture was that two of the boys were sitting on the floor while everyone else was standing, then I noticed that they are grasping their parents legs. This is not a normal set up. The boys look as if they are holding on for dear life and they are definitely in my opinion too old to be holding onto their parents legs for any reason. Let alone posed like this. My attention then went to the third son who is leaning on his father as if the father is his backboard. Then he too is grasping and interlocked with the fathers arm. The whole "holding on for dear life" thing again. The father however, does not even seem to notice that his sons are attached to all his limbs. Another thing is that the father is the center piece this is not uncommon but what is, is that the rest of the family is all surrounding him and holding tightly to him rather than just standing next to him. He is standing with his arms on his hips while everyone else is holding onto him in some way. The lighting used is somewhat normal it appears to be just inside lighting with a backdrop which is used often for portrait style pictures but it looks like there are shadows behind the standing children? and that is weird you normally do not see shadows in an indoor posed photo. There is just something odd about this picture to me.

I would never want this to be my family photo and have to be one of those middle aged boys holding onto my parents legs.

Lines and Shapes coming to Life

Although this comic strip is not in color it still shows detail while just using different shades of black and grey ink. In the first box if you look at the tree behind the grandma there are lines on the tree trunk that make it so it is apparent to the viewer that this is indeed a tree. The lines are textural and somewhat directional. The lines drawn towards the sky and upward help to show direction or indicate size. Also, they help to add or show texture to the tree so that we know that it is possibly bark or darker pieces of wood that is slightly extended off the stump showing texture. This is just a few of the lines used in this comic.

In the second box we can clearly see as the viewer that the grandson is looking towards the ground. We know he is looking towards the ground because of the use of "eye lines". Eye lines help show the viewer where the people in the image are looking. These lines help indicate where the people are looking and help to also show some emotion. The grandson has his eyes drawn looking straight down, showing disappointment and lack of enthusiasm towards what his grandma is saying. We know all this because of the eye lines drawn.

In the third box we can tell that the grandma is wearing a long sleeve shirt that she possible had rolled the sleeves up on. We can tell this because the lines that are drawn on the shirt closer to where the end of the sleeve is, look to appear like the creases in fabric as well as the lines that show a rolled cuff at the bottom of the sleeve. These lines drawn on the shirt help us see what we are looking at. They gave more description to the shirt. We now were able to tell that it was loose and rolled and possibly from cotton material. All from the lines, which we call these lines descriptive lines. The shirt at the cuff also uses what is called a contour line.

Contour lines are lines that help show or add image to an object or person. In the last box if you look at the arms of the chair that the boy is sitting in we can see that the end of the arms of the chair are rounded and appear smooth like. We can see detail added with gestural quality lines that are the actual "curving" or "rounding" of the line. This gives shape to the chair and help us to in vision it. The lines drawn on the inside of the chair help to show the texture of the chair. It give the look of a soft chair that forms to the boys shape and gets the "sinking" look with ripples in the fabric of the chair.

There are a lot of things that go into making a comic and making it appear some what realistic so that the viewer can relate to or see what the object is. Lines of all types help to do this. When drawn a certain way within a certain object lines help to define the drawings.

Timing Is Everything

" Seems like every time you come back home, It's just to steal my heart and leave. Don't go away again"

My previous blog post was an image that represented or showed love, to me personally. With this same image, I am able to change or alter its meaning or what the image is displaying simply by changing its context. Context is the form in which the message was given. What I mean by this is the context of an image is when, where, how, why it was taken. I can change the context by changing the words or caption that go with this image.

The new caption or words that I put to this image are "Seems like every time you come back home, It's just to steal my heart and leave. Don't go away again"-Every Avenue. Now when I look at this image(try to imagine the "come back soon" and "i feel safe" aren't there) I see discouragement, sadness, heartache, routine,and frustration. These feelings are almost completely different then the feelings I first had with this image. That is because the context has changed.

The context is now two people sitting on a curb together and they are unable to fix or come up with a solution to their problem. The male is always having to come and go and the girl is tired of it and doesn't want him to leave again. I think that frustration can be seen in this image now because the girl is use to this routine and is kind of asking him to stay, knowing that he can't or he won't. Which then leads to sadness, heartache, and discouragement. They both are going to get discouraged to talk or work on the problem because they don't have any ideas how to fix it. The body language that at first was seen as closeness and wanting to be near each other, now can be seen as awkwardness and uncomfortable. The words "come back soon" originally showed understanding and encouragement. Now, the words "Don't go away again" show anger or sadness. The location of where the people are has changed now as well. First, the location of a girl and guy choosing to sit on a curb and talk was because they were probably trying to be alone so they could just talk to each other and not be bothered because they were in love. Now, the location of the curb can be seen as wanting to be alone because they were going to have a fight or argument and didn't want others to hear or see. This shows how the same exact place or location can stand for different things simply because of the context of the image.

The context of an image is really important because that is how we will interpret the meaning of the image. Not everybody is going to have the same meaning or take away the same thing from an image, even if it is the exact same picture. We all have different contexts in which we place it.

Showing Love without Saying it

Love. This picture shows or represents love without having to actually say "this is love". I have interpreted this whole image as meaning and showing the idea of what love looks like, or could look like. I can do this because of the idea of semiotics. Semiotics is roughly "the study of signs". Signs can be in the form of words, images, signs, gestures, or objects. A thought behind semiotics is that we construct our reality based on the way we interpret the signs around us. Meaning that the culture in which we are apart of helps to influence what the signs mean. This is because we assign meaning to things; they do not tell us what they are, we decide the meaning of something. There are several things that make this picture represent "love".

First, I saw what appears to be a pair of girls legs and a pair of males legs next to each other. The two people are sitting next to each other on a curb and are sitting tightly so that their legs and feet just barely touch. That is all that is visible of the actually people in this picture, but so much can be taken from just that. The body language suggests that they are comfortable with each other or attracted to each other because of the closeness and angle of their bodies. The position of the girls feet could also possible suggest nervousness, but of the good kind. Or of sadness. There are words involved with the image as well.

The words "come back soon." say so much. It means that these two people clearly care about each other and want to be around each other and are probably in love with each other. One of them has to go away and the other is letting them but saying to hurry back to them. The words "i feel safe" clearly show that this person feels safe with and because of the other person. Love is feeling safe, nervous, and excited for the return of the one we love after they have been gone. Although, few words are shown and less then half of an image, the idea that this image was trying to express comes through clearly.

Through semiotics we can take away meaning from symbols in many ways. The picture above represents "love" by the combination of what we know from our culture as body language that suggests love, and words that describe characteristics of love. This image is in a way showing the thoughts of the person in the picture who probably cannot say them out loud yet. This image overall uses semiotics in a creative yet subtle way to show "love"