Story

Power Signs and Symbols

Martha Rosler

This photomontage, The Gray Drape, by Martha Rosler, juxtaposes civilian life with life in a combat zone. The entire photo is in focus providing detailed scenes with a lot of information to focus on.  There are two different realities occurring in the photomontage: the one inside the house and the one outside. The house and the woman in the foreground consist of neutral colors. These colors provide a tranquil contrast to the bright fire and sunlight in the background. There are several diagonal lines and shapes, the shadows on the floor and the drapes in the air, which seem to lead outside or to the walls that block or contain the outside. The carpet in the lower left seems necessary to push the viewer’s eye to stay in the picture. If there was just open floor, instead of carpet, it would not seem to hold a viewer’s focus as well. The carpet also adds to the domestic life of the foreground.

The biggest contrast in this image exists between the two women. Towards the back a Middle Eastern woman seems cramped and almost confined to a box in the corner. She seems to be in mourning and distraught with the world she is trapped in. Her vibrant colored skin emphasizes her presence in the picture The other woman appears very free and spread out, in comparison. Obviously a western woman dressed in a gown and gloves, she appears very glamorous with a carefree simile and a seductive gaze at the viewer. Her environment is very clean compared to the visuals just outside her windows. She seems to be attempting to cover the outside visuals with the grey drape which she floats in the air. 

This montage emphasizes the disconnect between the civilian life and the lives effected by existing in a war zone. The soldiers are walking away from the glamour and comfort of the home into the abyss of combat.

Terry Barrett

Terry Barrett's, Photographs and Contexts, encourages photographers and its viewers to consider context of images. A photograph can be interpreted many ways, as explored through the several ways Robert Doisneau's photograph of a man and a woman drinking wine was used as a visual aid to a prostitution article as well as a displayed in a typical gallery setting. Barrett highlights the importance of context in a gallery space stating that it is more about the artist who took the photograph or the comparason of artist rather than the content of the photograph. He delves into the expectations of aesthetic pleasure in photographs, especially in photojournalism: "'...they document the suffering which causes our indignation- and distances us because they are superb photographs of Agony, conforming to surrealist standards of beauty.'" Barrett also critics the idea that a picture acts as a type universal language or communication. He states that different cultures obtain different meanings and interpretations of a single image. A picture may be worth a thousand words but those words could be contradictory and vastly different form one another. Barrett's challenges the conventional views and expectations of photography. It made me realize that I take interpretations and context of images, including my own, for granted.

"Is Doisneau's photograph equally about cafe life, alcohol abuse, prostitution, the art of photography, and seduction? Are any of these wrong? Are all of these fair? Which of these are the most plausible, enlightening, accurate? What follows are concluding considerations concerning photographs, contexts, and interpretations..."

Paint

Paint On The Streets:

Ideas for Darkness