StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Photography and Society Interrelations - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Photography and Society Interrelations" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues in the interrelations between photography and society. In the 1970s, Kohei Yoshiyuki captured what can be called a shocking revelation of the arcane retreat of Japan’s public sex confidence…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.6% of users find it useful
Photography and Society Interrelations
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Photography and Society Interrelations"

Nevertheless, the real issue at hand is the motive behind taking the image. There is a voyeuristic element in the way the images are represented through the lens. It can be observed how the acts are conforming to the intended obscenity, the poor lighting, and the predating conditions before Yoshiyuki’s encounter with the couples. No one could honestly testify the real intent behind the scopophilia but judging from a critic’s point of view, there seems to be no cooperation between Yoshiyuki and the group of people. In the context of photography, while Yoshiyuki did not anticipate the happenstance, the drive that sticks him with the ongoing public demonstration could be related to personal photography, wherein he intended to seize the image for personal use (Wells, 56); “here is a person making choices, not a stationary camera recording what passes before it (“Gefter, Sex in the Park, and Its Sneaky Spectators”). The photo also suggests his nature as a photographer: a voyeur. Although, he vehemently disagreed that he is one. He asserts that “I intended to capture what happened in the parks, so I was not a real ‘voyeur’ like them” (Gefter, “Sex in the Park, and It's Sneaky Spectators”).

In the past few decades, “there had been a tendency to conflate the history of the subject with the work of the particular practitioner” (49). Nude photography had already been in existence since the 1940s and 1950s, and the concept of indulging in such kinds of photography may have been traditionally ascribed; hence, voyeuristic photography could therefore be ascribed; although, not necessarily contained within the practitioner. The “curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, agrees that Yoshiyuki’s work falls into a photographic tradition” (Gefter, “Sex in the Park, and Its Sneaky Spectators”). In the past and maybe until today, the “aesthetic and subject matter of the photograph was considered as only of secondary importance” (49); what is more important is the image itself. Looking at the photo, it is rather conspicuous that no artistic impression was intended; considering the ephemerality of such activity, the motive behind the photo is the image alone – an idea that conforms to personal photography – in which the practitioner was more concerned with capturing the image rather than understanding its significance. Indeed, obscenity does not entail good standing; hence, this has been discounted in the process, perhaps, due to the voyeuristic purpose of the photograph.

As mentioned earlier, it can be argued that obscenity does not entail good standing. If this is so, what was the real motive of the practitioner? Voyeurism and scopophilia can be very subjective oftentimes and so Yoshiyuki, as he proclaimed himself a voyeur, points towards what he can take out of the “perfect” encounter; although, the picture expresses manifold significance in the society. The picture somehow signifies the employment of nudity as an indicator of certain types of prejudice in that body is essential to "colonial modes of power, including the processes of representation" (84). The picture relatively depicts a social stratification in the Japanese civilization, in which women are significantly controlled by men.

Photography, in history, took part in the employment of modernist thinking that criticizes “high and low cultures”, which are conveyed in early Marxist writings (51). It was mentioned earlier that nude photography is possibly ascribed to the 1940s and 1950s. But it can be postulated that it was not as common before the 1940s. While obscene photography is prevalent today, there yet have been negative connotations regarding the acts of posing in indecency and lewdness in public. But what is more significant in this contemplation is how modernistic thinking has gradually transpired into the neo-societal stage of most civilizations recently. The conservative thought of containing visual arts as some decent and moral forms of representation have slowly been neutralized by the transformational revolution.

We can see through this picture the individual phases that led to the openness of society to photographic modifications of themes and motives. Photography is now being used to understand trends or patterns in social preference, especially those which are related to the "ethnographic curiosity about the kind of clothes or tolls that were common at a particular period; while others are fascinated by the characteristic stance and gait of workers in particular (57).

Photographs are used extensively to examine the past - the life and social status quo during earlier times. Furthermore, "they have become a major source of information by which we picture, understand or imagine” (57) in earlier periods. This photographic idea is extremely significant in expressing emotional content in every image captured by a camera. Through every photographic image we create, one gets to understand the conditions of people in the past, whether stratification was of special importance in society or not, or the situations that define everything about the historical details.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Critical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1463911-critical-analysis
(Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1463911-critical-analysis.
“Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1463911-critical-analysis.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Photography and Society Interrelations

Photojournalism and Public Awareness of Humanity

This study will examine the effects of photojournalism on society at large and individuals at the smaller level.... photography in journalism not only had an impact on how people observed the world.... In general, life, as we know it today, would not be remotely close to what it is had photography not been invented, and we can see this since photography was first generated.... ith the invention of photography, minorities, primarily women, were given an equal opportunity to excel in a hobby....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Photomedia in Modern and Contemporary Art

In large part it appears that rather than attacking the nature of photography, Baudelaire is attacking an understanding that photography replaces classical elements of painting and sculpture.... The most notable element is the indication that photography is not simply the replication of reality, but rather assumes new artistic forms of expression.... This argument is very sound in that instead of focusing on abstract notions of aesthetics, it indicates that photography largely demonstrates newly perceptions on space and reality....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The artist Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz' contribution to contemporary art history is precise and clear to the global society.... During this period, artists developed different art styles that eventually yielded them the unprecedented fame, which lasts to the modern global society.... In the modern society, visitors to the museums that hold Vik's artworks derive an allure from them since they resemble complex and yet predictable presentations over basic paintings....
8 Pages (2000 words) Book Report/Review

Hauntology of Photography - The Digital Revolution

In his claim, he cited Cézanne and Picasso as good examples of painters who started their career in early days of photography and started modernizing the art with its literal means of depicting the world.... This paper "Hauntology of photography - The Digital Revolution" skews towards one main point Hountology, which is originally a French word, is almost identical to ontology.... Discussing the ontological status of photography is considering what kind of particular thing is in a photograph....
16 Pages (4000 words) Essay

Alfred Stieglitz's Photograph of Marcel Duchamp's Fountain

Stieglitz revolutionized camera work by stressing ‘straight' untouched photography.... Stieglitz was the most respected photographer of his time, and he fought for the recognition of photography as a valid form of art.... He is one of the figures who revolutionized the American photography.... Luminous-Lint finds it hard to imagine the direction that photography would have taken without the involvement of Stieglitz....
9 Pages (2250 words) Term Paper

Analysis of Proof: The Photographers on Photography Video

Undoubtedly, the National Geographic photographers present an important point on the nature of interrelations in the present society.... Through great photography, one can understand other communities and their time, and create an open-minded society.... While society largely believes that humans do not care about others or the environment, the video confirms that they do actually care.... Photographs have a connection to human emotions in a powerful manner that can change the perception of humans to society....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

Photographs Furnish Evidence

?? photography with photographs are instruments which allow us go into light as well as come out of light.... Nevertheless, simultaneously, photography takes as away from an occasion, prevents us from actually getting into conduct with it, and furthermore thus turning the images into “shadows of each other....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Jerry Ueslmann, a Photographer

Apart from assisting photography students in attaining respective careers, he also played a role in founding the photographic education society in 1962.... The essay "Jerry Ueslmann, a Photographer" focuses on discussing Jerry Ueslmann's photography, highlighting the varied techniques which this photographer utilizes in a move to come up with such outstanding masterpieces.... Ueslmann has played a major role in the industry of photography; because apart from being a mentor to many, he is also willing to share his skills with the world....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us