Image Progression.

This post will outline the progression of my images.  I have chosen to make images based on the following theories: Panopticism, Subculture and Style, Identity and The Gaze.

Panopticism.

This is the first image I shot for Panopticism.  I like the fact that there is a Police van in the background, silently watching the people.  However, I dont think you get the feeling that this is an innocent crowd watching a fireworks display, because there arent any fireworks in the shot.  The crowd could be misinterpreted as a crowd getting ready to make a protest of some sort, where the police would be necessary.

This is my second edit.  I think the photo now makes a statement about the surviellance in society.  There is an authority figure asserting his power just by his presence.  I chose to add the fireworks from another photograph from this night because I felt it would help show that this is an innocent gathering of people, yet there is still a  police presence.

Subculture and Style.

I chose to use this photo of a snowboarder because i think that all sprts, especially extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding and rollerblading all have their own styles and they are all a subculture.  For example, you could probably tell a snowboarder from a rollerblader.  Not only do the people wear a certain style of clothing, there is also a certain style to the tricks they do.  For example, certain tricks are 'tweaked' a certain way, and this is seen as a stylish trick.

However, I didnt feel that the snowboarder photo quite fitted what i wanted to illustrate, so i shot this photo.  I started thinking about the photographic style of skateboarding.  Low angles, fisheye lenses and lights to help freeze the action are all very common in skateboard photography.  I used a fisheye lens, lights and a very low angle to help show this photographic style.  I made sure that the skateboarder was lit properly, so you can see both the trick and the riders clothes.

Identity.

I chose to shot an image of a friends tattoo, because I think that tattoos symbolise someones identity.  Tattoos are are a very personal thing to get, and often they symbolise a personal/private event that has happened to someone.  Also, you tell identify someone from their tattoos, so I though they were the perfect subject for my Identity photograph.

The Gaze.

For this image I had a clear idea of what I wanted to shoot.  I wanted to shoot a way of advertising that uses the 'Gaze' to its advantage, and I thought that an underwear shop front would be perfect.  The shop fronts of these shops are designed to grab the attention of both Females and Males.  I wanted to try and and capture both Males and Females looking at the shop front, or at least acknowledging the shop.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechinacal Reprodution.

"the resulting change in the function of art art transcended the perspective of the century; for a long time it even escaped that of the twentieth century which experienced the development of the film" (Benjamin, W: Wells, L: The Photography Reader: Pg47).  This quote suggests that people in the 1930's were still debating if photography is an art form.  This has been widely debated, and it still is being debated.  This debate was complicated by the invention of film (moving images), and the argument of whether film is an art form was also debated.

Citizen Photojournalism.

This is an image of 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.  It could be argued that this event started the ‘War on Terrorism’.  In the image, we see a skyscraper emerging from the city skyline.  At the top of this skyscraper, there is a huge cloud of smoke, dust and debris.  From this, we can tell that some sort of explosion has happened, and later that day we would learn that two planes brought these iconic towers down.  This image was published in a few magazines and a few online articles as well. 

The Other - Jacques Lacan.

Lacan’s explanantion of the “other”, is that we use the other in order to help us learn what we need to seprate from so that we can develop into properly functioning adults.  For example ‘it is a fictional image of ourselves (such as a mirror image) which we tend to identify with, and yet we must learn to conceive of as separate from the physical body’.  (Cavallaro, D, Critical and Cultural Theory, pg 121) So we must learn that image that we see of ourselves, is made up, by ourselves, and by the others around us.  We take the opinions on to ourselves.  

Panopticism

Jeremy Bentham designed the ‘panopticon’ as a multi-purpose building that could be put to any use, in 1791.  Michel Foucault used this design/idea to come up with a theory of panopticism, which is applied to modern society (1975).  Foucault wrote Madness and Civilisation, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 

Panopticism is the theory that by placing people in a situation where they feel like they are being  constanly scrutinized and monitored, such like a panoptical prison, they will start to self regulate their behavior. 

At the time of the conception of the idea of the panopticon, there was a new attitude towards work.  Work was seen as a way to make people better.  All of the socially useless people were put in work houses (panoptic institutions), drunks, criminals, vagabonds etc.  Gave a new method of making useless people useful. 

Examples of contemporary panoptic devices are open plan offices; the boss sits at the back of the office, watching everyone so people feel like they have to work and behave as they should.  CCTV, having the cameras on show, knowing that they are recording you makes you think before you act. 

Photographer Phillip Lorca Dicorcia uses a similar idea to panopticism, he sets up a flash and a trigger, and photographs people as they trip the flash, illuminating just them in the frame.  All of this is done without them knowing.  The series Heads was made in 2000.  

Gender Ads

The ad is putting the audience in the perspective of a heterosexual man.  The ad shows a pair of female legs with her underwear around her ankles.  The ad is clearly meant to be seen from the male’s perspective.  The image of the legs and underwear has nothing to do with a film processing lab, it is just trying to get the attention of the male audience.  This ad reinforces the Gaze’s position, in that the ad is clearly meant for the male audience, and it has nothing to do with the product it is trying to sell.  It is using sex to sell, ‘If you develop your film here, you could be in this situation.’