Ok, I know its been a while but didn’t think it would be as long as this!

So, first of all I need to post a quick update.

I have decided to base my research around the Annie Liebovitz photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, where he is naked and lying next to Yoko in a foetal position. This is mainly because I had such a strong reaction to it, that it seemed to press a number of buttons for me but could also see the beauty within the image and how it can work on so many different levels.

I’ve also developed a theory about portraiture. This being that the portrait can consist of four elements, which are connection, essence, authorship of the person and truth. A portrait produces a connection between the subject and the viewer and is the reason why people have photographs of loved ones in their wallets etc. The essence is the part of the person that is projected by them, in a sense its part of their presence but also expresses elements of their character. The authorship is of how genuine this essence is and concerns the authorship of the person and not the photographer, that the subject is able to project, and the photographer can capture, this authentic projection of the subject’s essence. The final part is the element of truth, that it can be a believable characterisation of the person, both physically and metaphysically.

I’ve also been looking at feminism and how that could be interpreted. This has made me aware of the genderfication of roles within cultural norms and how these effect the person, both the subject and the viewer. This was motivated by my own reaction to the John Lennon photograph, that I felt it threatened his own masculinity but also admired his vulnerability within the image.

The last part to mention is that I’ve also started to look at the expression theory in art and how emotion is expressed. This is turning into being a big section of research and I can imagine this could form a large part of the MA as I have found it quite inspiring. I have started to develop a new theory which involves both the expression theory and also the imitation theory and as brief summary, the emotion that is projected from the photograph to the viewer is a pseudo emotion by using imagination and that triggers the real emotion. This is because there is a change of narrative from the photographer to the photograph and then to the viewer, which is first person, second person and then back to first person.

I also had a tutorial where the main advice was to slow down! I can understand why I was given this advice and I think that over Christmas I will give myself some time off, but I’ve built up some momentum and I don’t really want to let it go. But with this in mind and to help me keep track, I will start making blog posts on a weekly basis, hopefully…