Reading Assessment: Barrett's Criticizing Photographs – Ch. 4

This chapter tackles the idea of categorizing different photography in means to highlight the different types of photography in art. But not to judge the photographer; it is more to help guide the viewer in examining a piece of photography and to have it open the path to analysis. It opens up with the discussion of past “photographic categories” suggested by various artists—for instance, John Szarkowski’s theory of “mirrors and windows” in looking at the context of a piece of photography. The mirror symbolizes the artist’s “romantic self-expression”, or the artist’s means of dramatizing the scene giving us an idea of the artist personally; and then windows relate to the realistic idea of the work that’s goal is to “dramatize less” and provide a contextual subject matter within the world.  From there, the chapter goes on to present newer categories now accepted as means of understanding/analyzing photographs. It explains that there are a total of six categories that help a viewer identify a photographer’s photograph. And these categories are helpful in interpreting the photograph. Descriptive photographs, self-explanatory, are photographs to be produced for the sole reason in showing an accurate record of subject matter. Examples of this include identification photographs, NASA space exploration photographs, medical X-Rays, and surveillance footage shots. Explanatory photographs purpose is to express subject matter that has a very specific context in time and place that is dated with visual evidence, and need scientific accuracy, within the photo. They are most commonly found in newspapers, magazines and books. This is because of their heavily relevant social context agenda. Interpretive photographs provide personal and subjective interpretation, and likewise to the explanatory photographs, they seek to explain how things are with a more poetic gesture. Ethically evaluate photographs are politically engaged, and often incite passionate ideas. They deal with socially relevant ideas, but have a desire to spark an emotional outburst and change. Aesthetically evaluate photographs focus on aesthetic issues only. This photography is more about visual form. The subject matter is infinite, but its most popular subjects include the nude, landscapes and still life. Theoretical photographs focus on the topic of art within how its made, the politics of art, the different ways its represented and its theoretical context. It seems to approach the idea of photography and art more philosophically, tackling concepts like its ideological place in society.

            I appreciated the chapter’s approach in explaining, first, how there were an array of different ideas in approaching how do we classify photographs. I thought the new six different categories were seemingly accurate categories. The author provided both a historical background to each category and clear description of what each exhibits. The images of examples were also helpful in my understanding. I particularly found Szarkowski's "mirror and window" analogy, explained in the introduction, as very inventive and clever. I found I could heavily relate to that idea as a graphic designer. A graphic designer has a specific agenda as they approach creating a page layout, a logo or any form of design. And through that creative process, your own "romantic self-expression" is a heavy influence in what you create. However, you're also working within a social context-- that is a marketing sense (the "window") where viewers are viewing your work in a realistic matter of how the art is relaying a realistic general idea.