Task 5: Reading a Photograph

In 'How Do We Read a Photograph?' from G. Clarkes book 'The Photograph', Clarke tells us that "The photograph achieves meaning through what been called a 'photographic discourse': a language of codes which involves its own grammar and syntax." (Clarke, 1997, The Photograph, p. 27)

Victor Burgin insists that the discourse of the photograph "engages discourses beyond itself, the 'photographic text', like any other, is the site of a complex intertextuality, an overlapping series of previous texts 'taken for granted' at a particular cultural and historical conjuncture". (Clarke, 1997, The Photograph, p. 27)

“Early commentators like Poe, as much as Hawthorne, Holmes, and Baudelaire, noted the literal rather than symbolic aspects of the photograph, ignoring the extent to which is replicated cultural meaning rather than actual things.” (Clarke, 1997, The Photograph, p. 27)

Clarke however, tells us clearly that “We need to read it as the site of a series of simultaneous complexities and ambiguities, in which is situated not so much a mirror of the world as our way with that world”. (Clarke, 1997, The Photograph, p. 28)

In Clarke’s teachings we are asked to realise that the photograph is always entropic in nature. Because of this, we are invited to, when reading a photograph, take into consideration what we know about when and where and how the photograph was taken, and assume that written into the image is social, historical and cultural message for us to decipher. This may be deliberate and a product of the skills of the artist, but it may also be a product of the photograph being a document, and therefore capturing a trace of ‘the real,’ no matter how hard the photographer tries to conceal it. We need to know that there is nothing passive about photography, “to ‘take’ is active. The photographer imposes, steals, re-creates, the scene/seen according to a cultural discourse.” (Clarke, 1997, The Photograph, p. 29)

So, like in any language, we need to understand that what the ‘speaker’ says could be loaded with information. What we have to do in order to read it is make educated speculations about the relationships between the ‘denotative’ elements and the ‘connotative’ elements.

The first thing that strikes me about ‘Danger’ is the colours of the warning signs of which there are two. The combination of red, yellow and black denotes danger instantly. The second thing that I notice is the bars and I immediately feel unease. The hierarchy of the imagery or order in which we view the elements is especially interesting in this image. We first see the warning signs as we are used to paying attention to these when we walk into a room in order to avoid risk of injury. Secondly the bars make for a feeling of claustrophobia and unease. I then saw the tureens perched on the edge of the table, as if they may fall at any moment, they are 'teetering on the edge'. The room is filled with unavoidable dangers. If we now take into account that this image was taken in a psychiatric hospital as part of a project on internal communication, we can really explore the connotative meanings of this image. The experience of viewing the image for the first time and beginning to read it is a taste of being imprisoned in an environment that gives an illusion of safety but that on closer inspection may not be safe at all.

After a moment’s thought, the fire alarm to the left of the gate may provide an opportunity for escape, surely the gate would open if it was pressed. But beyond the gate all we can see is an unknown shadowy corridor. This image connotes the questioning of the relationship between feelings of safety or unease, and the effects and benefits of containment for those in mental crisis, rather than for the people affected by someone in mental crisis.