Saturday, 15th
September, 2012
Aughris/Dunmoran
People love a sunrise and a
sunset. Out come the cameras and the scene/seen is condensed into frames of
varying sizes and converted onto different sensors or type of film and then
maybe it’s manipulated in Photoshop or some other equivalent. But what do they
hope to capture? What do they to convey? What is the meaning of such an image?
It’s a beautiful still
morning. The sound of the ocean is a constant and the air is filled with the
chatter of birds, some I do not know, others such as the crow are
unmistakeable. A cock crows and a donkey brays. Human life is at a minimal. No
cars can be heard; seagulls cruise past on their daily search for food. What
lies between the people holding their cameras and the sun in the far distance
is anything but the romanticised, idealised emotion they are feeling.
The sublime beauty of the
landscape and the clichés that follow are explored in the work of Norwegian
photographer Torbjorn Rodland (b. 1970). Rodland portrays a subject, the Nordic
landscape through a pre-existing style that as Cotton states, illustrate
through their composition the conventions of how to represent beauty
highlighting the misty sunrise and sunset as “the classic idylls of nature in
pictorial form, handed down from landscape painting to professional nature
photography and to our holiday snap attempts”. (Cotton. 2007. P. 215) Rodland,
Cotton posits, is aware of the irony that, to be able to experience the
sentimental emotions of landscapes, the viewer brings to mind other images that
function in a similar emotive way.
While studying for my degree
in photography we were often directed against producing anything that was
considered to literal but the term literal can be used in more than one way.
If we look at the theologian
and bishop of the early church, Augustine (354-430) we can discern this
difference. For Augustine the literal meaning was the real truth not as is
often the case, the plain sense. As Vernon
points out, Augustine believed that biblical narratives should not be taken as
faithful records of what happened rather they have a figurative sense. The
literal meaning of the Bible relates to that which matters now. Scripture is a
living word and is understood in the impact upon the lives of believers.
Although the scholar Garry
Wills refers to Augustine’s book, Confessions
his translation can, I feel, be related to photography. Literal meaning can
be deemed first meanings stating that the effort of reading is in discerning
what the symbols deployed within the image are trying to convey.
The use of the word symbol
can be defined, I believe, as different from symbolism. Symbolism refers to an
object that has other meanings which unless, as Tolstoy states, the meaning has
been learnt the viewer is unaware. This goes against a universal reading of the
image. However, a symbol is what is conveyed in its literal meaning, an image
conveying a sunset is a sunset.
When I make an image I always
keep simplicity in mind hoping the viewer will interpret it in the way I hope.
With Augustine, as Vernon
sets out, he was comfortable with the possibility of various interpretations of
scripture because the value of the Bible, its truth, “is found in an
interpretation that is applied to a particular set of circumstances”. (Vernon.
2012. P. 82)
This morning I made a picture
that contained within it the ocean, a pebble ridge, clouds, sky, the sunrise,
detritus, a dead animal and other elements. It was photographed on black and
white film and for me raised questions about the idealistic and romanticised
portrayal of the landscape through painting and photography. No element
symbolized anything other than what it was a symbol of. This is no a sunrise
but what if others took the symbol of the sunrise for symbolizing a new start
or the ocean as a symbol for cleanse and purity? Then if we consider Augustine
it does not matter, many interpretations can be made but what of its truth? And
what of esoteric art, something I have not equated value to?
Ancient art has for the most
lost its meaning. The object is seen as a representation of, for example,
Sumerian art or some other culture, tribe or civilization. Its symbolism, often
highlighted as a symbol of woman or man or animal, is also lost which, for me,
reinforces Tolstoy’s view that symbolism is limited.
If we take Vernon’s example of Augustine and read the
object as a living piece it can be read in terms of today instead of the past,
much like the Bible and Plato’s Symposium
should. The Venus of Willendorf is
a literal representation of a woman and the symbolism is believed to be
fertility but if we read it as a living piece of art we can ascribe fertility
to it.
Venus of Willendorf
In relation to yesterdays
bigoted American pastor that burnt the copies of the Koran, because of his
interpretation of the Bible, we should note Augustine’s reading that when
“human readers delude themselves that their reading is right and fixed, they
have made themselves into gods; they have placed themselves above scripture”.
(Vernon. 2012. P. 82)
Like the Bible and Plato’s Symposium is it possible to make work
that deploys , as Vernon
posits, reason as well as myth and light as well as darkness?
Bibliography
Cotton C, 2007 The Photograph As Contemporary Art Thames
& Hudson: London
De Botton A, 2003 The Art of Travel Penguin: London
Grunenberg C and Pih D, 2011 Magritte A to Z Tate/London
Newby E, 1995 A Book of Travellers’ Tales Pan Books
Ltd: London
Perlmutter D and Koppman D,
1999 Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art:
Contemporary Cross-cultural Perspectives State University
of New York Press: New York
Smyth D Editor, 2012 British Journal of Photography Oct Issue
7805
Sontag S, 2002 On Photography Penguin Group: London
Tolstoy L, 1969 What Is
Art? And Essays on Art London: University Press Oxford
Turner V, 1967 The Forest of Symbols Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press
Turner V, 1969 The Ritual Process Penguin 1969
Various, 1987 The Age of God-Kings 3000-1500 BC Time
Life Books: USA
Vernon M, 2012 God The
Big Questions Quercus: London
Copyright Mark King 2012
