Photo Theory

Wk 3: Making Meaning Part 2

 Tony Fouhse

• ”Just because you work at something, arrange it, is no guarantee that the thing
you make has much, or any, meaning”
• “The job of a photographer (or artist) must be to wonder about meaning, to
make work that states their case, and then stand back”.
“Theory is both descriptive of the world we live in and
speculative as well, in that it seeks new worlds and new
language to understand what seems to be “natural” and
“normal.” If the ideas that theory wants to express were easy
to say, they would not need to be said. The work of undoing
what you know, or what you think you know, is hard. You’re
going to have to work hard. We aren’t here to learn what we
already know.”
http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2016/09/13/we-arent-here-to-learn-what-we-know-we-already-know/
Clockwise from top left:
CBC, Toronto Star, Washington Post, Forbes, Al Jzeera, New York Times, CHEK Vancouver
From Emily Keegin, @emily_elsie
Photographer: Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters
Photographer: Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters

Photographer: Jordi
Matas, Demotix,
Corbis
In terms of advertising, there is always a preferred way to read a text (an image
is a kind of “text” for our purposes here). Common sense tells us that a woman
wearing a ring on her “ring” finger is married.

But ideology frames our common sense.

Images create meanings that are already tied to existing structures of meaning
(whether or not these structures change, as per the post-structuralists). We can
consider the ring a “symbolic code”.
The literal meaning of a photograph (say, a
young woman laughing with salad) and its
ideological content (she has a super fun life
because of her healthy choices) are two
distinct realities.
Stuart Hall stressed that we are not
mindlessly consuming media but are
“reading” it or “decoding” media in
different ways. He introduced three ways of
reading “signs” (elements in a photograph
for our purposes):
• Dominant-hegemonic reading: Accepting
the dominant reading that was intended
by the author - that is the “meaning”
defined by the person who made it.
• Negotiated reading: Some, but not all, of
the intended meaning is accepted.
• Oppositional reading: Refusing or
refuting the dominant or preferred
meaning
 Linguistic
Photograph
(“Panzani”)

Denotes
Denotes: Connotes: Connotes
(Perceptual
Message): (Cultural
Message):
Brand name
Italianicity
of product Variety of Colours of
Market bag
Vegetables the Ad Aesthetic
goodness
Connotes: Connotes: Connotes:
Full meal in Freshness Italianicity
the can

Roland Barthes from Rhetoric of the Image talks about

conventions or “codes” of advertising photography. This
can be thought of as a particular persuasive language
which signifies/delivers meaning.
Theory, in general, asks: What structures,
assumptions, and connotations typically lie
underneath the thing that we are encountering?
A non-exhaustive list of critical theories that attempt
to critique or destabilize the status quo:

• Feminism
• Postmodernism
• Queer theory
• Postcolonialism
• Critical Race theory
• Affect theory
• Marxism
• Structuralism
What are the assumptions we have about photography?
What are the assumptions we have about photography?
Some reductive and non-exhaustive definitions

Feminism
Criticizes and analyses gender inequality. Includes misogyny, sexual objectification,
stereotyping, discrimination.

Marxism
Concerns itself with class differentiation, economic discrimination, and class oppression.
Considers material differences as most impactful in creating difference between people.

Critical Race Theory

Asks – how has whiteness as a default been perpetuated? What is the role of racialization
in the creation and maintenance of the superstructure?

Queer Theory
Rejects binary assumptions about gender. Rather, identity is fluid, without a “centre”.
Gender is a performance.

Structuralism
Aims to uncover the systems of meaning that we take for granted through analysis of signs
and their meanings.

Post-structuralism
Takes issue with the idea that there is any fixed meaning at all – meaning changes. Rejects
binaries and the idea that there are “normative” ways to be and truly transcendental
signifiers.
Weegee, The Critic
Theory VDES 36084
Project #2. Annotated Bibliography 15% Due Wk 7
Related to:
Major Assignment Part #1. Literature Review 20% Due Wk 10
Major Assignment Part #2. Presentation 15% Due Wk 14

You will choose an issue that relates to photography or for which photography can be a tool or agent of
change and prepare an Annotated Bibliography, a Lit Review, and a Presentation.

Here are issues and areas to consider:

• Photography and memory
• Food insecurity
• Human impact on climate change
• Changing ideas around gender
• Truth in media
• Racial equity
• Mental health
• Colonialism and photography
• Ethics and “synthetic” imagery
• Collaboration with subjects

Project #2 will ask you to prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic of your choice. Include at least eight
sources (not including photographer references, which aren’t mandatory for this part of the project).

*Note that you must submit a one line proposal to me regarding your chosen subject matter by the start of
class Wk 5. If you fail to do this, you will lose 3 marks from your Annotated Bibliography mark.

*Note also that 3 students maximum can choose the same (or closely related subject). If you do not confirm
your theme with me and you write about something that is not available (ie. 3 students have already chosen
that area), you will fail your annotated bibliography.

Due week 7 • Total: 15 marks (15%)

• Marks will be deducted for poor grammar or spelling, and for not following the guidelines listed above.
• Naming convention: LastName_FirstName_Theory_Project1.pdf
• Annotated Bibliography should be double-spaced, 12 pt, Times or Times New Roman font with 1 inch
margins, left-justified.
• Citations should be done in Chicago Style (notes and bibliography)
Theory VDES 36084
Project #2. Annotated Bibliography 15% Due Wk 7
Related to:
Major Assignment Part #1. Literature Review 20% Due Wk 10
Major Assignment Part #2. Presentation 15% Due Wk 14

In Major Assignment Part #1, you will write a Literature Review based on your topic and the sources that you
have used in your Annotated Bibliography. A lit review is designed to show that you have fully investigated
your topic and can provide a summary of the ways in which this issue is being understood broadly and the
ways in which photography has dealt with your issue. More information and expectations on writing a
Literature Review will be provided in future classes. See below for more information on the format and
expectations of a lit review.

Major Assignment Part #2 will be an in-class presentation OR video (both should be between 3 and 4
minutes) in which you provide a compare and contrast examination of at least 3 photographers working
currently on the subject that you’ve chosen. Be sure to relate your analysis back to the lit review that you’ve
done and at least one thing we’ve discussed in class. Are these photographers exploring the theme in a new
way or is their project(s) in keeping with traditional thinking on the subject? More information and
expectations on this assignment will be provided in future classes.
Reading for next week:

John Berger, Uses of Photography, from About Looking, 1980.

Perusall Code:
P1: MORTON-XQCTL
P2: MORTON-AD4X7