Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The Past and the Present of photography

Post no. 10

"A photograph is a message without a code.."

"Certainly the image is not a reality, but at least it is its perfect analogous and it is exactly this analogical perfection which, to common sense, defines a photograph."

pg.17 Roland Barthes, “The Photographic Message, in “Image Music Text”.

Basically what this book is trying to say is that the connotations determine the denotations of a photograph. The color schemes, arrangement of elements and composition all determine the meaning of its reality. Like Instagram, with its provided filters, one can insert a false sense of nostalgia and dating into their pictures although just taken a few seconds ago. This changes the denotation of the image from what its original was. Therefore, drifting further apart from its analogous similarity with reality.

This argument is mentioned by one of the professional photographers I have analysed, who too had mentioned about how all Instagram photos that have a filter on them no longer have a meaning as they all have the same look and denotations.


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