Photographic History: Critical Review, Modernism, Postmodernism, Visual Analysis

Running head: PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
Photographic History
Student Name
University name
Author Name

PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
Task 1: Critical Review:
Semiology is the study of signs. Roland Barthes introduced this idea, modifying the
theories suggested by Ferdinand de Saussure in linguistics as an underdeveloped area of science
related to signs and signification. This system of signs can be interpreted in other forms music,
entertainment and photographic language. The relational value of signs can be established
through this powerful tool named semiology (Pearson, 2015). This is significantly effective when
the readers or the spectators fail to interpret the deeper meaning of the text. Not only the creator's
ideology, but the semiology also brings various social aspects to the surface. It is general practice
for the viewers to interpret the artistic expression in a very literal sense, but semiology brings out
the deeper meaning that was hidden underneath (Kiefer, 2015). In the process, it might bring out
the ugly truth by penetrating the beautifies superficial surface. However, it should also be
considered that out social understanding often shapes the interpretation. The relationship that
photograph establishes with the objects is quite different from other art forms as it corresponds
with its representation and that is why Charles Sanders called photography as a referent (Robins,
2014).
Barthes explained sign as a complex relationship between signifier and signified
(Chandler, 2017). The signifier is the object through which the idea or signified is expressed. The
example has been used to highlight the meaning of signifier and signified is a red ketchup bottle.
The signified here is the ketchup like this that you built through your experience. The signifier is
that is not any other sauce than the specific red ketchup. Barthes also talked about denotation or
the literal meaning of sign that acts as the first level of signification and the connotation is
understanding the meaning beyond the denotation (Yan & Ming, 2015).

PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
Because photograph has a real effect, it has a convincing power through expressing an
un-coded message. Most critics have explained that building the perception is also a decoding
process so like any other sign photography is also limited by the contextual meaning. However,
Smith and Lefley have argued that the un-coding of photographic signs gives birth to certain
resistances from transcending into a wider meaning (Smith & Lefley, 2015). They claimed that
photography stands different from others because of its ability to be treated as evidence.
In Camera Lucida Roland Barthes highlighted that photographs cannot be reduced to a language
because they are manifestations of reality. This is contradictory to the conventional idea of a
sign, as according to the definition a sign does not hold anything realistic (Sonesson, 2015). The
sign is based on representation, interpretation and procession. According to Barthes photographs
can be read in both ways. In one hand it is a representation of social meaning, and on the other
hand, it might convey a personal auteuristic message. Symbols, indices and icons are three types
of signs as Pierce suggested in his triadic theory (Nöth, 2015). The indexical sign is more
associated with photographs. The indexical sign refers to a casual-link between the meaning it
has expressed and the object that is expressing it. The meaning generation through a photograph
is quite different from a drawing or painting, here the exposure to light is more important than
the creator’s intention. Photography expresses an “indexicality” that breaks photography from
other established signifying system. There are truthfulness and naturalness associated with a
photograph.

PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
Task 2: Modernism, Post modernism and Photographic History
There are two trends of photography history, one is called formalist, and the other is anti-
formalist. The cultural study during the twentieth century greatly influenced photography
history. The cultural study extended its area of study to popular culture and photography. In the
era of modernism, the photography worked under the genre of formalism which was challenged
during the postmodern era. The critics of the postmodern era, believe that other forms and media
get incorporated in the photographic medium (Gaggi, 2015).
The modernists only highlighted the purity of the photographic medium as a lens-based
language where the post modernists believed that that photography has always been a “hybrid
medium” (Dawsey et al., 2016). Naturally, the meaning generation also differs. The first group
stressed on the photographic truth while the other believed that the contemporary context matters
a lot in the meaning production. It can easily be interpreted if one considers the theory of late
capitalism. It supports that the world is not a source of truth anymore. One can refer to
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, that questions the power of evidence and truth of a
photograph. Levine's photograph also supports the idea of constructed reality that can also be
referred as constructed reality or hyper-reality.
On the other hand, the modernists described photography as a self-conscious artistic
tradition. The technological advancements related to the photographic advancements were
hugely appreciated by the modernist critics. The Ermanox or the Leica cameras took significant
part is the process. In the modernist period, the realistic expression of photography attracted the
Avant-garde visual artists greatly. They even claimed that photography is anti-aesthetic and
artless which is a great quality.