Reflections on Chapter 1

Although the introduction was written only a month ago, it has been three since I started on the Landscape course, having trialled a few exercises before taking the plunge of enrolling. I set out that I wished to use the experience of previous courses (in particular Understanding Visual Culture) and my interest in coastline walking, and that has so far been successful. UVC gave me the confidence of reading and writing about art in general and of referencing; this generic skill has been utilised in several of the exercises; I like the fact that the course contains much about Landscape photography (and the wider artistic context) as well as doing.

Ater a simple preconception exercise, the first reading and critique for exercise 1.2 was of Krauss's thesis of art in the gallery; it leads more generally to what is art (revisited in my reading of Grayson Perry's Playing to the Gallery), a well trodden path, but one that is necessary to tackle in a course such as this.

Exercise 1.3 provides a further opportunity to widen from  merely photography to consider conventions in the world of landscape art. I used the exercise as an introduction to the concepts of beauty, sublime and picturesque.

Whether photography can be viewed as art is another well discussed subject, as set out in exercise 1.4. The issue for photographers is that the product is used for so many purposes: aesthetic, fun, advertising, sport, journalism to mention a few. All of these COULD be defined as art in some circumstances, much depends on the objective of the author. There is an argument that an artistic aesthetic can be assigned only to a series of images, a photo book in common parlance.

The sublime is the subject of exercise 1.6. I have some difficulty with the concept of sublime as it is not a word with a clearly defined meaning in common parlance - if anything it is used to mean exceptional quality, almost a 'beauty plus'. I discussed Morley's essay then suggested that the concept of sublime may be viewed in the context of sci-fi, specifically the movie Ex Machina.

As one keen on post processing, I found exercise 1.8 useful to engage on HDR processing. This was more practical exercise and an opportunity to compare how to take images where there are wide variations in exposure. My technique is to use post processing largely, simply because the opportunity to use in camera functions requires equipment (a tripod) that is simply not feasible to carry but I show there are in camera functions that can be used even without a tripod.

Exercise 1.9 shows contrasts between social perspectives in place. It is important not to lose the human in landscape - the human geography on my coastal and other walks is integral to the experience. I used images of Barcelona, which is at once a popular tourist destination and a city with a large homeless population, to show the different sides.

The assignment completed the Chapter, and provided an opportunity to challenge whether the distinction between beauty and sublime is binary and even whether it has as much relevant now as 150 years ago.

The chapter has proved an interesting and challenging start to the course.Reviewing the assessment criteria:

• Does this show technical and visual skill? I think the images are well chosen and demonstrate what the exercises and assignments intend;
• I enjoy the discussion on topics such as the sublime/beautiful contrast, whether photography is art. Hopefully my arguments are presented clearly and with a personal voice;
• I do reflect on the subject, genuinely interested in the background reading.

Exercise 1.9 Visual research and analysis - social contrasts

This exercise follows commentary in the notes on Photography and the City. The notes quote Clarke (1997) from his chapter in The Photograph. I made notes on this for a previous course and reread for this exercise.

The object is to find photographs depicting at least two different social perspectives of the same place. I chose not to focus on the work of a single photographer for this part of the exercise but rather explore further a subject I came across somewhat by accident when in Barcelona: the plight of the homeless in that city. This article explains that there are about 3,000 homeless in Barcelona, and, while there, I visited the Piso Piloto exhibition setting out the problem using exhibits and video interviews:

Piso Piloto Exhibition. Available from http://www.cccb.org/en/exhibitions/file/piso-piloto/128989. Accessed on 25 March 2016

The contrast between the renowned tourist sites of Gaudi's stunning architectural design and the homeless who live therein is manifested with the following set of images:

The chimneys at La Pedrera

Park Guell. Available from http://www.denizbekleyisseven.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Park-Guell.1.Barcelona.jpg. Accessed on 24 March 2016

Sagrada Familia. Available from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Sagrada_Familia_01.jpg. Accessed on 24 March 2016

The images show the contrasting beauty of Gaudi's work with some of those who live within its shadow and for whom the presence of tourists admiring the architecture offer little expect begging possibilities. As a way of crossing this divide a social enterprise company has been established to offer guides to the city employing homeless people.

Guides employed for tour were previously homeless. Available from http://www.hiddencitytours.com/. Accessed on 24 March 2016

The second part of the exercise is to find two photographs depicting social contrasts within a single image. 

I found the following by searching the internet:

Availalbe from https://sotwpodcast.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/image-425413-galleryv9-sqdr.jpg. Accessed on 24 March 2016.

I like this image as it is evidently a grab shot taken as three fashionistas pose on the pavement as entirely unaware of the disadvantaged man on the left as he is of them. It really is as if they inhabit different worlds yet, for this moment, in close proximity to one another. The city, with its teeming population, allows the coexistence of many social contrasts. 

Available from http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03461/homeless-mancheste_3461778b.jpg. Accessed on 24 March 2016

Tents housing the homeless have appeared in Manchester along a shopping street of designer boutiques. Apparently, the occupants find that northern shoppers are more generous donors than southerners according to the Daily Telegraph article.

Reference:

Clarke (1997) The Photograph. Oxford University Prss. New York 

Exercise 1.8 Zone System in practice

The aim of this exercise is to demonstrate awareness of the Zone System relating to High Dynamic Range ('HDR') imaging and to adjust for light in differing light conditions.

The notes preceding the exercise point out that cameras do not possess the dynamic range of the human eye (this is The Holy Grail of camera developers) and that this is a particular issue for landscape photography as images frequently suffer form either or both of a foreground that us too dark or a sky that is burnt out.

There are several ways to overcome this:

•  Exposure bracketing in the camera - take several images with differing exposures and merge them. My Canon 7d Mark II offers this as an 'in camera' HDR option and is used in this exercise; 
• Take the images for exposure bracketing into post processing ('PP') software such as Photomatix or within Adobe and use the software to tweak the output. I use both of these softwares in this exercise (but using the Adobe Camera Raw HDR option rather than Photoshop's HDR, which I view as unsatisfactory);
• Improve the dynamic range of a single image by using PP. In this exercise, I take the middle image of three taken at a range of exposures into Topaz Adjust and apply a preset (Light or Medium Pop Grunge). An alternative is to use shadows/highlights available in Photoshop and a range of other softwares to boost the former and reduce the latter.

The three scenes are landscapes taken near the coast: second Severn Crossing; cliffs on West Somerset Coast Path; and Penarth pier.  In each case, the HDR function has been used in Auto mode on the Canon. I find Auto works fine usually, adjusting the range of stops without  having to work out by trial and error and risk ending with a plethora of images to review. I also only ever take three images for HDR merging; that number seems to work perfectly well with some additional PP and, in any case, is the most that practically can be taken handheld (I take very few images on a tripod due to practical difficulty of carrying one on lon distances) without ghosting becoming a problem.

Each scene has seven images, successively: 

• the under/over/middle exposures as taken in the camera (the originals were RAW images but saved as JPEG for this exercise); 
• the HDR as merged in camera (called 'Canon');
• HDR as merged using Adobe Camera Raw (called 'Adobe');
• HDR as merged using Photomatix (called 'Photomatix');
• Single image HDR using Topaz Adjust HDR on the middle exposure only.

The results are on a Flickr collection accessed below. It is important to note that no additional PP has been applied: it is usual to apply more than just HDR processing to images but for this exercise it seemed best to have images that were produced using consistent PP.

The dynamic range of the three images varied; the range for the cliff scene being much less because there was less sky in the image, and that sky is darker. That is one of the benefits of using an Auto setting in camera. 

The results are much less variable than might be expected - none of the images are acceptable in HDR form shown without further PP to boost clarity, sharpness, tone and contrast - but demonstrate how technology can be used to obtain a better image with a fuller range of exposures. The single image using Topaz Adjust works well for the Severn bridge and Penarth pier shots, perhaps emphasising how sophisticated PP software has become.

Exercise 1.7 Assignment preparation

The following email was sent to tutor for comment:

Assignment 1 is to produce 6-12 photographs that convey my own interpretation of beauty and or the sublime with in the context of landscape. 

The assignment will be 12 images taken from a walk through Plymouth and on to Warren Point: the first 10 miles are on the Plymouth  Waterfront Walkway from Admiral's Hard to Jennycliff; the last five continue along the coast to the estuary at Wembury. The combination of urban and coastal scenery; and a range of weather conditions allow for an interpretation of beauty and sublime at two different levels, in particular the sublime as an awe-inspiring experience of nature; and secondly as something of a nihilistic antidote to aesthetics as discussed in Exercise 1.6.

I intend to upload the images into the assignment blog. An alternative would be to upload onto a Flickr set, but 6-12 images is easily manageable in a blog.

Exercise 1.6 The Contemporary Abyss

"Beauty itself doth of itself persuade, The eyes of men without an orator." (William Shakespeare)

"Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt." (Immanuel Kant)

This exercise is in two parts: To read Simon Morley's essay 'Staring into the Contemporary Abyss' available from http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss, and secondly choose a body of work that I feel explores the sublime and write about 300 words as to how it explores the sublime.

Simon Morley: Staring into the Contemporary Abyss

'Sublime' has an archaic ring to it; nowadays it is used more as an adjective describing something favourable:

"In common use, sublime is an adjective meaning "awe-inspiringly grand, excellent, or impressive," like the best chocolate fudge sundae you've ever had." (source: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sublime)

Morley points out that there is a confusing mismatch between the word's common usage and its artistic use; sublime was adopted by Romantic artists seeking to produce for their audiences:

"emotions of a decidedly irrational and excessive kind, emotions seemingly aimed at evicting the human mind from its secure residence inside the House of Reason and throwing it into a boundless situation that was often frightening". 

Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog 1818 is a fine example:

This attempt to get the artist's audience out of its comfort zone was  reincarnated by the likes of Newman and Rothko as an antidote to what they saw as shallow European art (despite  the modernism of Picasso and others) wedded to ideas of beauty and aesthetics.

Further, one can see that the term was used slightly differently in literature than in art as discussed in the post on the BBC podcast hosted by Malvyn Bragg.

There have been further movements to reassess the nature of sublime, such that Morley adduces five different uses of the word: 'the unpresentable in art, [and] the experiences of transcendence, terror, the uncanny and altered states of consciousness.' The link of these perspectives is:

"a desire to define a moment when social and psychological codes and structures no longer bind us, where we reach a sort of borderline at which rational thought comes to an end and we suddenly encounter something wholly and perturbingly other."

I am not sure about this. Our senses of what is perturbing have been dulled in recent decades by changing social norms, and the availability through digital means of hard core sex and violence as well as hard hitting news events. Only just over 50 years ago D H Lawrence's  Lady Chatterley's Lover was nearly banned for writing about an affair of a woman with her gardener. I would make three suggestions about the use of 'sublime in an artistic sense:

• It has appeared as a vogue word at different times and taken on a different context;
• It has different contextual overtones depending on the artistic medium;
• To a degree. it can mean more or less what its author wishes it to mean. 

Despite this lack of specificity in the use of 'sublime', there are perhaps twofold commonalities to its use:

• An attempt to woo the audience out of its comfort zone, to consider exciting things out of most people's day to day existence whether that be artificial or natural; perhaps the closest adjectival simile to sublime is 'awe-inspiring';
• As the antithesis to 'aesthetics' and 'beauty', those concepts commonly associated with calm pleasure and harmony.  

Morley argues that sublime now is more about 'immanent transcendence', a here and now experience. He puts in the context of Wordsworth's 'blank abyss', an example being Balka's huge steel structural work How It Is:

This is typical of what Morely terms 'negative sublime' and of the tendency for the sublime these days to be large installations; it has become more difficult for painters to adduce sublimeness, perhaps because of the points made above about changing social norms and the ascendancy of  digital media. He argues that many artists have adopted photography. The Düsseldorf school of photographers use the sublime to mean blandness - to challenge our concept of beauty and aesthetics. One of their students - Andreas Gursky - sold Rhein II for $4.3m in 2011: 

Andreas Gursky Rhein II, 1999. Accessed from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/Rhein_II.jpg

To conclude, Morley points out that our strongest sense of the sublime is provided by technology, and the limits of human understanding. The proof made public in February 2016 of the existence of gravitational waves was news all over the world, opening up the prospect of learning about the 'dark universe'. We may not understand them, but we do feel the excitement of learning more about the origins of the universe. Science fiction has existed to fill us with the sense of the possible if not yet achieved - to fill us with the sense of wonder. Our understanding and knowledge progresses such that yesterday's sci fi is today's mundane and ordinary. I explore this in the second part of the exercise by discussing the sci fi movie Ex Machina. This fits in the genre of the sublime as the possible but not yet achieved; the conceivable but not realised.

Ex Machina

Taking Morley's argument that it is technology that produces our strongest sense of sublime, Ex Machina is a 2015 sci fi movie on that takes the Turing Test of artificial intelligence ('ai') as its reference point. Turing devised the 'imitation game' as an alternative objective method of testing the efficacy of ai: can computers imitate the human mind rather than can they be a surrogate. The plot of the movie is that Caleb, a programmer  wins a contest to stay for a week with Nathan, the owner of the company for which Caleb works. Nathan is a very forward individual who needs an individual with the intelligence and wherewithal to put a creation of his through the Turing Test. Nathan wants to see if the simulacrum he’s created is actually intelligent. The simulacrum is named Ava (played by Alicia Wikander), and Caleb is going to interview her.

The movie plays with our sense of understanding firstly what is happening and, secondly, our innate sense of who to sympathize with and who not: who is the bad guy who is the goodie? Ava gets the trust and sympathy of Caleb, who works out how to overcome Nathan for Ava's sake. In the climax, Ava receives help from Kyoko to kill her creator, locks Caleb in Nathan's room, dresses herself in skin and accoutrements from another machine, and escapes into humanity.

The real sense of sublime emerges as our initial natural instinct to feel sympathy with Ava (and Kyoko, another female robot) as humanoid slaves to Nathan's obsession is steadily eroded as we realise she is cleverer and more manipulative than at first sight.We can wonder at the intelligence of Nathan to design a humanoid, immerse ourselves in the reaction of the hapless Caleb, and work through conflicting emotions adduced by Ava. Our we, in the end, pleased that a humanoid escapes slavery, or are we shocked that Ava finds killing Nathan and locking Caleb in a perfectly logical response to her plight? In that sense, is it a chilling outlook on what things could turn out like as ai advances? Kant's quote above comes to mind.

Postscript: As this post is being written, AlphaGo, an ai system developed by Google DeepMind is playing against a leading world player in the second of a five match series of Go, the highly complicated Asian board game that many thought would never be conquered by ai. In an article reminiscent of the emotions evoked by Ex Machina, the reporter surprises himself by rooting for the human opponent.

 

Exercise 1.5: Visualising Assignment Six: Transitions

The aim of this exercise is to read ahead and understand the requirements for Assignment Six, as follows:

"Produce a series of images that responds to the idea of ‘transitions’ within the landscape. Work on this assignment throughout the course. Record the changes that a part of the landscape undergoes over an extended period of time. You may want to revisit a very specific view or you may choose to explore a particular part of the landscape more intuitively. You may wish to photograph at very specific intervals (monthly, weekly, or even daily) or your routine may develop by other means. The quantity of work that you submit will depend on your particular strategy. When completed, the assignment should address the notion that the landscape is an evolving, dynamic system. You may wish to confirm, question or subvert this assertion."

The advice on Exercise 1.5 is as follows:

"...you’ll need to choose a location or specific view that you’ll revisit throughout the duration of this course. Choose somewhere that is easily accessible and practical within the confines of the assignment brief. We recommend that you pick a location that’s somewhere near to where you live or work."

I have two choices. My preferred option is to use images taken while walking Offa's Dyke Path. This seems to be compatible with the concept of "exploring a particular part of the landscape more intuitively"; transitions may be viewed both as the transition of the dyke and the associated path through the different landscapes of hills, woods, mountains, fields and streams, and seasonally. It is not close to home or work but I shall almost certainly be visiting it throughout the year and commenced the walk last October partly with this course in mind.

Walking with two friends, I have so far covered 51 miles from Chepstow to Hay-on-Wye. Images are on my Flickr page; I shall edit these down to more manageable album size when completing the Assignment. 

The exercise suggests a Plan B. For this, I have selected the local Garden of Remembrance, the aim being to take images from the same place at different times of the year and see how the space develops. This is a 'green site; for the remembrance of loved ones so the site transitions seasonally as flowers and trees grow and shed leaves, and also in terms of the burial plots. 

I have had some difficulty finding the optimal site from which to take images. Finally selected the one below:

This works reasonably on two levels - the transitioning of the vegetation as trees bud and flowers grow; and of the burial sites themselves, as they mature and more are added.

I made sure the positioning of the camera could be replicated by taking an image of the tripod's position and settings. I used the camera's GPS settings but even in these days of super accurate measurement it is doubtful whether the coordinates will be precise enough for this purpose. The camera is a Canon EOS 7d Mark II with EF-S 10-24mm lens attached. EXIF data are stored: f10, shutter speed 1/125, ISO 100.

I prefer the Offa's Dyke option but I think this works as aback up option and shall continue to take periodic images.

Exercise 1.4 What is a photographer?

This is a discussion of the essay 'Photography and Photography and Artistic-Photography by Marius de Zayas available from http://www.camramirez.com/pdf/DI_Week6_PhotoAndArt.pdf. 

The article commences with a bold statement:

"Photography is not Art. It is not even an Art. Art is the expression of the conception of an idea. Photography is the plastic verification of a fact."

De Zayas wrote at a time when Realism was giving way to Modernism in Art. Roger Fry was one of the first to argue that Art has to be more than a simple imitation of reality; there is more to it that that:

 "If imitation is the sole purpose of the graphic arts, it is surprising that the works of such arts are ever looked upon as more than curiosities or ingenious toys." (Fry, 1937)

Art is the expression of emotions as defined by the formal arrangement of the work of art. We have to consider how the subject is being shown: a study of form rather than subject (Howells and Negreiros. 2012, p35). That is De Zayas' view too: 'nature inspires us in the idea. Art, through the imagination, represents that idea in order to produce emotions', he continues.

De Zayas argues that 'representation of Form' in Art subsumed imagination. Using some language that is far form politically correct nowadays, he contends that African cultures do not understand a representation of reality, but take from nature only that which impresses them as an expression of their imagination. 

Imagination is key to de Zayas: 'the principal law of Art' he terms it. Imagination is the combination of memory, judgement, and attention into new ideas or images. It leads the viewer away from the reality of Form, that, de Zayas contends, can be transcribed only by the means of the mechanical process of photography:

"Art presents to us what we may call the emotional or intellectual truth; photography the material truth".

Photography enables us to realise our own emotions whereas Art represents the emotions of the artist.  Art has developed the imagination; photography is 'the concrete representation of consummated facts.' Photography is not art in this perspective; however de Zayas qualifies the assertion thus:

"Photography is not Art, but photographs can be made to be Art."

Photography per se is 'evidence of reality' with the aim of finding the 'objectivity of form'. Artistic Photography uses that objectivity of form 'to express a preconceived idea in order to convey an emotion'. In simple terms Photography is objective and Artistic Photography subjective; the former seeks knowledge, the latter pleasure. De Zayas concludes that it is difficult to say which is the more important.

To a degree, de Zayas' essay is a function of when it was written. Photography was still in its infancy due largely to the cost of the equipment. Kodak cameras were about (the Brownie was introduced in 1900 (Wikipedia)), but not widespread; photography was hardly used yet as a tool in commerce and other areas of human endeavour. It was therefore relatively simple to conceive of a binary function for photography. De Zayas contrasts the work of Steichen as an artist ('carried to its highest point the expression of a system of representation') and Stieglitz as an 'experimentalist' who searches for 'the pure expression of the object'. But even in this period of relatively few professional photographers, it is difficult to see that photography fell so easily into two camps. Consider these two images, one by Stieglitz, the other by Steichen:

Stieglitz - image of urban life

Steichen The Flatiron

Categorising either of these photographs unquestionably as either 'Photography' or as 'Artistic Photography' in the framework of de Zayas is fraught with difficulty; arguably both images demonstrate aspects of the subjective and objective. 

And therein lies the dilemma with this simple binarism. There is really no true objectivity in  a photograph and there never was. There has always been subjectivity in choosing what picture to take, when and in what conditions; how to use the light, what exposure to use. 

And there is a second objection: why would a photographer ever wish to take a photograph that is purely an objective statement of what he or she sees through the viewfinder? Even a so called 'record shot' taken on a camera phone by the least knowledgeable photographer of a holiday scene or object of touristic interest  has some kind of function other than recording the objective presence of the subject within the view of the camera lens. There is an intrinsic 'I was thereness' contained within the shot; it might not be art but it does seek to appeal to our emotions, albeit at a very limited level. 

At a basic level therefore, the distinction between photography as an objective pursuit with no emotional response assumed by the viewer, and one that seeks such a response is too simplistic; it serves no definably useful purpose and I am unconvinced it ever did as different images could and can be viewed in different ways by different people at different times. What is and was 'representation of fact' to one person might evoke an artistic response in another.

In one sense, it is arguable that this discussion is more relevant today, simply because photography is used in so many ways whose main purpose is not to evoke an emotional response: journalism, advertising, forensics, and fashion to mention a few. The distinction then becomes one of function: if the purpose of an image is not artistic, by definition it cannot be artistic. But that is not to say that, for example, images of females taken now on catwalks may not be viewed as artistic in the future. The images of 1930s and 1940s New York street crime taken by Arthur Fellig (aka Weegee) are shown frequently in galleries and are said to have influenced film noir (Carlson, 2012). Does it matter whether these images are viewed as 'Art' or just excellent and chilling records of happenings on the streets? 'Art' or 'not Art' becomes a rather meaningless distinction devoid of purpose.

Yet there is surely something contemporary in the distinction of an image whose primary purpose is to evoke an emotional response and one that is not. Curiously perhaps, de Zayas' thesis may have more relevance now than over a century ago simply because there are so many more photographic practitioners. Broadly I suggest three categories:

• Casual photographers - the vast majority who scarcely use any of the functionality of their phones whether DSLR, bridge, or camera. Crabbe (2013) discusses whether DSLRs are being replaced by camera phones; A post on mirrorless cameras argues that DSLRs are just too complicated for most of us;
• Professional photographers who use DSLRs and other (mainly lighting) equipment for professional reasons: commercial photography, fashion, sports, journalism, forensics;
• Professional and keen amateur photographers whose main aim is to evoke some kind of positive emotional response in their work. These may either be single images (typified by the 'beach at sunset' image below) or as photobooks. Often the works are submitted for competition or for gallery exposure.

David Gilliver West Coast at Sunset. This image is typical of the genre of colourful sunset with deliberately artificially created smoothness of waves - the classic 'milky effect'. Intended as wallpaper for computer or print version.

Although there is some overlap (professional photographers will often submit work for artistic purposes and some photography - notably journalistic such as Weegee's work above - becomes culturally artistic by dint of recognition from peers or others) the final category is what we could usefully call Artistic Photography today; perhaps the key difference adduced today is that the 'artistic' tag is specifically defined by purpose rather than result; what is the photographer seeking to achieve. If the main purposes is aesthetic, then the tag @Artistic Photography' seems appropriate. The main purpose behind photographs taken by professionals in the second category is more akin to de Zayas' 'concrete representation of consummated facts'; the technical qualities of the result are more important than the aesthetic.

It should be emphasised that the distinction is not binary - aesthetic photographs like the above require technical skill as well as an artistic purpose. Further, it may legitimately be queried whether defining photography in these ways is useful given the fluidity of views of what constitutes 'Art'. There are some, such as Scruton, who argue that photography can never be art because the beauty one might see in a photograph is of the subject itself whereas a painting may be beautiful, 'even when it represents an ugly thing'. (Scruton, 1984). Photography in this view is 'simply a medium through which we view the natural world' (Howells and Negreiros, ibid, p191).

This argument seems too simplistic and does little justice to the practitioners in the third category. There is more to a photograph than the subject-matter: the photographer has to take choices in the way the subject is presented in the image: lighting, aperture, shutter speed, composition, and post processing are all variables that permit an individualistic approach to the way the subject is presented. Indeed the subject-matter itself may be viewed as an artistic choice particularly if themed in photobook style. Warburton (1995) argues that:

"It is only in a series of photographs that a photographer's choices can be made clear."

This is an argument to say that even subject-matter that is not photographed in an individualistic aesthetic style can be viewed as artistic by considering the context of the subject in relation to similar images of the photographer.

References:

Carlson, Jen (2012) Weegee's Grisly Crime Scene Photos From 1930s and 1940s New York. Available from http://gothamist.com/2012/01/04/grisly_crime_scene_photos_from_1930.php#photo-1. Accessed on 9 February 2016.

Crabbe (2013) Will consumer DSLRs be 'dead in 5 years?'. Available from http://connect.dpreview.com/post/8533710022/consumer-dslr-cameras-dead-in-5-years. Accessed on 11 February 2016.


Fry, Roger (1937), An Essay in Aesthetics, in Vision and Design. Pelican Books. Quoted in Howells and Negreiros (2012),  Visual Culture. Polity Press. Cambridge.

Howells, Richard and Negreiros, Joaquim (2012),  Visual Culture. Polity Press. Cambridge

Scruton, Roger (1984) The Aesthetic Understanding. Methuen. London

Warburton, Nigel (1995) Individual Style in Photographic Art in Alex Neil and Aaron Ridley (eds) Arguing about Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (1995). Routledge. London.