Photography Reading

Subject Matter + Form + Medium + Context = CONTENT

SUBJECT MATTER

  • Begin reading a photograph by looking at the things in the photograph

  • What is in the photograph?

  • What people, places, and things are included in the pictures?

FORM

  • How is the photograph composed?

  • Photography composition involves techniques like:

    1. Subject Placement

    2. Leading Lines

    3. Depth of Field

    4. Focus to Guide Attention

    5. Emphasize Objects

  • to reveal photographer’s message and highlighting the subject

MEDIUM

  • What materials and processes were used?

  • Medium is the materials and processes used to make the art

  • This includes:

    1. Equipment

      • camera and lens

    2. Recording medium

      • digital or film

      • if it’s a film, identify the size and kind

    3. Developing processes or adjustments

      • if it is edited

    4. Final presentation

      • printed or web

      • if it’s printed, the size and type of the paper and framing

  • When considering the medium, also consider the photographer’s choices within the context of the standards and practices of photography at the time

  • A modern photograph presented in black and white would tell us something about the photographer’s intent

  • A modern photograph using historic photographic process— collodion plates, for example— is adding layers of meaning to the photograph

CONTEXT

  • What were the circumstances in which the photograph was made?

  • Context involves a broad consideration of the interrelated conditions in which the photograph was made and is being viewed

  • Culture, time, social beliefs, and cultural practices that would have given rise to the image and influenced the photographer

CONTENT

  • What story is the photograph telling?

  • Together with the subject, form, medium, and context of a photograph, we can form conclusions about the content of a photograph