Quote from Susan Sontag

A while ago we were asked to read Susan Sontag's On Photography and take a look at the quotes listed in the back of the book. I picked the following quote to reflect upon:

If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug a camera. - Lewis Hine

The reason that I chose this quote in particular has to do with the fact that I led the seminar discussion last week where we were discussing documentary impulses and the place of the photo-essay. This form of photography relies heavily on the written word to accompany photographs, so I felt that this juxtaposed with how Lewis Hine articulated in his quote. From Hine's quote, it seems as though he feels that photographic images are able to speak in a way that words cannot articulate.

I did a quick google search for some of Lewis Hine's work, in order to see how he employs language with his photographs, and stumbled upon the following link which contains Lewis' work along with original captions made by Lewis.

The caption that Lewis used for this particular photograph reads: October 1911. Lowell, Mass. Standing: Michael Keefe, 32 Marion St., been at work in No. 1 mule room, Merrimac [Textile] Mill, eight months. Apparently 13 years old. John Risheck, 391 Adams St.; Cornelius Hurley, 298 Adams St., been at work in No. 1 mule room in Merrimac Mill for six months. About 13 or 14 probably. Sitting: John Neary, 211 Lakeview Ave.; smallest is Robert Magee, 270 Suffolk St. Apparently 12 years old. Been working in Mule Room No. 1, Merrimac Mill, one year. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine

After reading the caption for the image, I wonder how Hine would feel about the value of the photo-essay, and if he felt that his work fell into this genre. From the above caption, I believe that his work fits in quite well with the nature of documentary photography, as his aim with his photographs was to bring awareness to child labour, a practice that he felt quite strongly against. It seems to be quite in contrast to his quote, but it leads me to wonder if he would feel the same way. Perhaps he would argue that, without the photograph, he would not be  able to tell the story of child workers in a compelling way. From this quote, I feel that Hine would argue that although the words may add to our understanding of the picture, it is the picture that comes first before the text. This is in contrast to our readings about the photo-essay which felt that the image and the text were equal contributors to our final understanding of the image.

Clowns having a bad day?

I found this image on the Library and Archives facebook page the other day with the description reading only "What Have We Here - Tell us what you think this image is about. Stay tuned! We'll reveal the caption in a few days."

This image really got me thinking about two of the articles that we read in particular: Roland Barthes "The Photographic Message," and James Opp's "Picturing Communism: Yousuf Karsh, Canadair, and Cold War Advertising." While it may not seem at the outset that these two articles have much in common, it was really two key messages in the articles that I was thinking about in my viewing of this particular image.

As I had mentioned in class, Barthes wrote something that intrigued me in his discussion of text as it relates to images. He writes that "the text constitutes a parasitic message design to connote the image, to quicken it with one or more second-order signifieds. In other words... the image no longer illustrates the words; it is now the words which, structurally, are parasitic on the image"

When I first came across this image of clowns, it was Barthes' words that I was reflecting on as I analyzed what I was looking at. When I discovered this image, the first thing that I did was to click the image on facebook in order to find the description of the image. I was looking for some words to tell me explicitly what it was that I was looking at: a date, location, or a reason why this image was significant. Essentially, I was looking for some textual descriptors to tell me what I was seeing. Without these textual indicators, I was reluctant to rely on my visual assumptions of what I was seeing. As Barthes implies, I (as a viewer) am not looking at the image first in order to clarify the accompanying text. Rather, I am looking for textual clues to clarify what my eyes are seeing.

This leads into Opp's piece where I was struck by his analysis on the role of text in anti-communist advertisements. Opp writes that "[p]aradoxically, the more concrete the images of communism became, the longer the textual explanation had to be to contain the possible meanings that could be "read" into the photograph. Rather than making the nature of the threat more visually self-evident, photographs seemed to make it less so." Although the image of clowns is not about anti-communist advertising, the sentiment is applicable in that it implies that a photograph without textual accompaniment can be quite ambiguous.

Thus, when I looked at this image, without any textual cues to guide my viewing of the image what I saw was what I assumed was a circus troupe of some sort. I noticed that none of the clowns seem to be smiling, and while I could not date the picture, I saw some clues that, given the proper knowledge, might help someone to attach a date. I noticed that one of the clowns are aboriginal in stereotypical dress, only two women, and a black man. I also noticed a man dressed as a soldier that was holding a gun and that many of the clowns are holding instruments, which leads me to believe that they had some type of marching band. Other than this, I found myself really unsure of what it was that I was seeing.

Both Barthes and Opp drew my attention to issues surrounding the use of textual information with photographic images, and this really brought to my attention how this text really can influence the way that images are read by their audiences, myself included.

And by the way, after this image had been posted for a few days, LAC posted a link to the description of the image. Title: Clown Band. Date: 1914-1919. Place of Creation: No place, unknown, or undetermined. Subject Heading: Sports & Amusements - Musical. Does this change how the viewer "reads" the image? That is for another blog post.

89. Complete a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle

My mother recently came back from a buisiness trip to Sweeden, and brought back a giant puzzle of the Sweedish transportation map - including subways, highways, traintracks, water ways and all the other types of ways. Lucky for us, the map is written in Sweedish, in a cylyndrical tube and with a very limited drawing of what the finished map is supposed to look like. And by lucky, I mean that it is a wonderful oportunity to practice my Sweedish... yeah.. that's what I meant... Du fristard tu Swenska? Inteso-brah. Fristard Engleska (or something along these lines)

A few weeks ago I come home to find that my brother had started putting this puzzle together - after a hard day of work during tax season, he decided that staying up until 2am would be a good idea before he had to be back at work bright and early the next day. Good idea, but he only managed to get the edges of the puzzle together.

Now can you imagine my delight when I came home the next day after work to see this partially asembled puzzle on our coffee table? (It went a little something like this - Hey! Who did this? When? Why wasn't I invited?)

Over the next week, me along with various members of my family would sit in front of this puzzle, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes a couple of hours and slowly pieced this puzzle together. It is now sitting proudly on the coffee table, being used as a glorified coaster.

02. Train for and complete a 10k run

A while ago, I blogged about training for a 5k run. But this last summer, I actually ran a 10k race in the Ottawa race weekend (without cheating).

The first thing I needed for training was new shoes! My old ones were about 3 years old and falling apart, so this meant one thing - shopping! The shoes I bought have mesh on them so things are quite airy when a gust of wind comes my way.

Training for this was another story. I decided to use my lunch break at work to train, and methodically used googlemaps to plot out my training circuit (during non-work hours of course), which ended up being 4.8km on googlemaps (plus a nice hill/shortcut that google's system did not recognize). And, because my lunch is only 30 minutes (plus 15 mins since I get in early), I had plenty of motivation to get back on time (or get fired..).

Considering that a few years ago, 5k was hard for me, my training went pretty well, except for my first day. As I have blogged about many times before, I am HORRIBLE with directions. It was all going fine until I came to a road that I couldn't remember if I was supposed to go left or right at (as usual, in doubt, I went left). What saved me was good-ol OC transpo. I used one of their handy bus-stop maps to locate myself and get back to work after a solid 38 minute run.

The race weekend went much better for me, since I had over 10,000 running buddies to follow and didn't have to worry about directions (huge arrows mapping the route ) and the fact that I followed a lovely man dressed in a bunny outfit. I finished the race in 1:06.12 and am planning on getting to 1:00 next year!

Into the Heart of Africa

From Toronto Star,  February 24, 1990, F11

Take a close look at this advertisement. If you were to see this ad presented in conjunction with an exhibit entitled Into the Heart of Africa, you would probably think it was highlighting African art, culture and other traditions wouldn't you?

Wrong.

This is an exhibit about Canadian imperialists and how they collected African objects that eventually found their way into the Royal Ontario Museum...

29. Don't rack up fines on my library card for 1 year

I am notorious for forgetting to return library books. Luckily, as a Masters' student, I get to keep them for 4 full months per book, so I can put off returning my books for a long time without getting fines.

The solution to this problem, is to simply stop reading. And since I have no more time for leisurely reading, I won't be borrowing library books (except for academic ones, which as previously mentions, I can keep for 4 months), so I think that I can cross this one off my list!

07. Wear sunscreen every day for 2 weeks in the summer

Did I ever tell you the story of when I went to the spa, and the aesthetician was trying to extract my blackheads from my nose? Well, sit down and listen because it is quite the amusing tale.

So there I was, listening to the gentle and soothing sounds of waves crashing on a sea shore (which, fyi actually really stresses me out) and this lady is trying to clear my pores when she turns to me and says, 'oh, I thought those were blackheads, turns out they are just sunspots. You should really wear sunscreen since it is much easier to prevent sunspots than get rid of them'


Well la-de-dah. Sorry if I happen to freckle easily. Besides, aren't I paying you? Why are you ruining my day of relaxation. Go give your advice to someone who cares. Did I ask for your opinion? No? Then let me get back to the sound of waves.

Anyways, when I went on vacation this summer, I made a conscious effort to apply sunscreen every day, especially to my face. I don't like putting sunscreen on my face because it makes me look very pale, and if I am nothing else, I am gloriously tan (or caramel as I like to call it). But because I had sunscreen on, I didn't wear a hat when I got home I had more freckles than ever, so I'm not sure if it helped or not. At least I don't have blackheads...