Denotation is a translation of a sign to its meaning, precisely to its literal meaning, more or less like dictionaries try to define it. Denotation is sometimes contrasted to connotation, which includes associated meanings. A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive or negative, with regard to its pleasing or displeasing emotional connection.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of sign processes, which are any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to the sign's interpreter. The meaning can be intentional such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition. Signs can communicate through any of the senses: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory (taste).
Detonating and Connoting my own photograph
This photograph was taken during summer late at night during a party. From this photo you can denote a man wearing a hat throwing up hand signs to the camera, you can tell the photo is taken at night, there are also glimpses of a fence and another person wearing a sombrero. When connoting this photograph I see vibrancy and liveliness making me feel the energy in this photo, I can tell that the photograph has been taken randomly in the moment giving it a natural setting.
Studium and Punctum
Keeper of the hearth.
Keeper of the hearth is a photo book created by Odette England to commemorate Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida's 40th anniversary. This book recounts Roland Barthes' search for the perfect image of his mother, he calls this the 'Just' image of his mother, for him this is a photograph that perfectly capture his mother as he remembers. The photograph known as the "Winter garden photograph" is the photo Barthes' chooses is a photo of his brother and mother taken in what is described as a winter garden, the photo was taken when he was only five years old.
However in this book that Odette creates she does not include this "Winter garden photograph" leaving the reader guessing whether Barthes' actually found the 'Just' photo of his mother, Odette does however invite more than 200 photography-based artists, writers, critics, curators, and historians from around the world to contribute an image or text that reflects on Barthes’ unpublished snapshot of his mother at age five.
"The story of looking", Mark cousins
Mark cousins "the story of looking" documents his thoughts and emotions on the day before he gets a life changing surgery performed on his left eye that will potentially fix his vision, he spends the first half of the documentary reflecting on his own experiences with vision. What i found interesting and most notable about the way he documents his experiences throughout the documentary is the way he creates connotations to film and photography through the way that they impacted his vision.
Peter Watkins - 'The unforgetting'
Personal investigation photographs.
What within your project are you really interested in?
Process: Film photography Experimentation
People Social issues, social discomfort Friends, young people, youth
What is it about your project that your really want to know?
I want to learn more about myself and who I am, hopefully this can be portrayed through my photography, despite me still being unsure about what my second personal investigation will be about I think experimenting by taking photographs of things that are close to me will allow me to find out and learn what I'm going to do for my personal investigation.
What is it that you want to document?
I'm still unsure on what I intend to document with my photography for this project, for my last project I did more of an abstract piece of work where in contrast this time i would like to do something more natural.
How much do you want to document what you see?
I don't want to document everything I see, I feel like a photograph can very easily turn out boring and often i feel like this is a result of taking photos of something that doesn't catch your eye for example, taking pictures of something you see every day etc.
What do you want to share with the viewer?
Im not too sure what i want to share with the viewer through my photography as I'm still unsure what my second personal investigation is about yet however, I do know that I would like my photographs to reflect my personal life.
Who has been your inspiration so far?
I don't necessarily have an inspiration for my photography as I'm still unsure what my preference/style in photography are however I have often looked at photographers like Masahisa Fukase and HiroMix and been fascinated by their work and aspire to be able to catcher my viewers fascination like how I've been captured by these artists.
Luke Saxon - Piilgrim questions
Growing up in London do you think this has strongly effected your photography? Or has other people/places influenced the direction it has moved towards?
I'm not too sure, growing up in London has definitely affected how I look at life so maybe that can be seen through my photography.
The use of black and white comes across very prominently in your work, almost paintingesque. Is photography your sole background or do you have other art influences?
I have not experimented with other arts however I would like to attempt to paint and somehow incorporate that into my photography.
What inspires you to shoot?
My main inspiration to shoot is emotion I love being able to see peoples expressions in a photograph and for that to be able to give such a strong impression with regards to whats happening in the photograph.
Let's touch on a subject that I'm positive has never been discussed before: do you prefer shooting on film or digital?
So far all my photographic experience has lead me to believe that i much prefer film rather than digital, Im not entirely sure why that is it could be the aesthetic of film or the time and effort that goes into shooting and developing ur film.
How is this decision relevant with your photography?
Im not sure if this reflects any relevance in my photography yet.
Who are some of your favourite photographers?
I have loved Masahisa Fukase ever since I first saw his work however, I don't see myself ever taking a photograph like his, one photographer that i have been heavily inspired by and aspire to take photos like is HiroMix because of how intimate and personal her work is.
Tell us about your photobook? What was the idea behind it?
My photobook was sort of a last second idea as I was very unsure with how I wanted to present my photos in a photobook, however Im very happy with how it turned out as I feel like it is a very unique way of presenting photographs.
What's happening next?
I'm not entirely sure yet all I know is that I want to work towards something completely different to my last photobook.
Personal investigation photos.
These 3 photographs were taken over my half term break and showcase what I have been working on, unfortunately the rest of my photographs have been taken on film, I have a roll of black and white film being developed and the same for my coloured roll of film. Despite these 3 photographs being different they show some of the styles i've worked on recently and i intend to focus my personal investigation on one of these example styles. I have been interested in documentary photography since i started photographing however I don't feel like i have ever had a successful attempt at creating my own documentary images, in the third image it is a photo of my mum and for me this is what I would like my documentary images to look like, not to say that all the photos would be about my mum but I like imagining what she's thinking about and for me that is something I would like to look into more. The photograph in the middle shows what my portrait photography would look like, I would like to challenge myself to take a series of portrait photos and see how they turn out. Lastly the photograph on the left is what I'm really interested the photograph feels warm yet to me it feels like you can't tell what's going on in the photo I don't know if thats just because the photo came out blurry or maybe it was for another reason either way I want to look into this more and see the results I can produce.
Re-editing old photographs
I was looking through some of my old photographs and I made a comparison to my current work and realized the way i take photos now has completely changed, I noticed that I tend to intentionally over expose my photographs. I wanted to see what my old photography would look like if i had taken it now so decided to go into adobe light room and boost the whites and bring down the blacks on all my photos. When I look at how the edited photos turnt out I'm much more satisfied with how they look now in comparison to before, I noticed I chose to revert any photos that I had made black and white and by doing this it has shown me I can create a lot more interesting work if I utilize colour and light in my photography.
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognized as the New York school of photography. Saul's photographs are considered to be a pioneer of early colour photography, his photography would focus on the juxtaposition of colour however he would do this in a very minimalist way, he wouldn't mind if the subject of his photograph was slightly out of focus as long as he got something in the foreground. Saul would also like to shoot in extreme weathers especially snow, this would often make the shutter drag in his photographs things seem finer, Saul loved finding beauty in extreme weather.
Colour photographs - personal investigation
Evaluation
I am very satisfied with my first experiment with coloured film, I love the colours and tone that I got with my final product for these photos as they all feel very warm which surprised me as I took all these photos on cold days out. I intend to experiment with editing these photographs to see a potential alternative outcome for the photos.
Edited colour photos
I'm not sure which version of these photographs I prefer however I find the contrast interesting, despite the photos being of mundane things I feel like the edited version makes the photos feel menacing almost in contrast to the warm feel I get from the originals. I'm going to experiment with these dynamics more to see how they mix with each other.
Black and white photographs - personal investigation
Evaluation
Im happy with how these black and white photographs have turned out however, after looking back through a few of them i have noticed some of them are too under exposed showing me that I need to play around more with the settings on my film camera. Despite this I feel all of the images still turned out well as they aren't all "good photographs" creating an interesting dynamic.
Blanks. My most recent roll of film (Cinestill 800T) came back from the dark room as blanks, this is most likely due to the back of the film camera being loose meaning I had to duct-tape it together causing some light to leak through the cracks. Despite this being an annoying experience it is a part of using film photography, so I will use this experience and learn from it to improve my film photography in the future.
Medium format photos (Fuji and Potra 400).
This was my first time shooting anything with Medium format 120, these photos are a mix of Fuji and Kodak Potra 400. I scanned and edited the images myself and initially thought all the finger prints on the scans where mistakes from when the photos had been developed however, it turned out that the scanner I had used to get the digital images had fingerprints all over it.
Despite this making the images "Technically incorrect" I think they made A happy mistake showing that chance is very important in photography although for my next photos I would like to have "Technically correct" images to see the comparison between the images. Through this first experience I have become much more comfortable using film as a whole as i have gained more of an understanding when it comes to using film.
Practicing on photoshop.
Kodak porta 400
These where the results for one of my final shoots before I completed my online exhibition, this was my third time shooting with Portra 400. This shoot shows the improvement my photography has made throughout my experience shooting with film, it shows the direction my photography is taking.
I decided to use all of these images in my exhibition as I think these are the best results I have had with my photographs.