Thinking about representation - Essay Example

The Representation in Interpreting Weegee’s Image: The Myth of Photographic Truth The Representation in Interpreting Weegee’s Image: the Myth of Photographic TruthWhat does representation depend on in photographic interpretation? Photography is an art that is shared like a conceptual map; the picture is a portrait that requires one to understand the foreground. Although most photographs are staged by photographers either with discretion or without, interpreting Weegee’s image raises these issues (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001).

The consistency of the Weegees foreground placement raises mixed reactions and color code, as to who is the director of their photograph.The myth of photographic truth This picture is a visual code testimony that the Weegee’s exists or existed, and that is the truth that has traditionally been associated with pictures. The photograph has been regarded as the testimony. At one point, Krauss depicted a photograph as a transfer off the real, owing to the fact that it is a photo chemically processed, to trace a casual connection with a particular thing in the real world.

Krauss further observed that a photograph, refers parallel to a particular object. Although truth in a photograph is disputable, the painting in the truth in the photograph is indisputable (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). The photograph in this case presents a tension, owing to the fact that it is camera generated, and thus it combines both subjective and adjective features (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). Although it may be mythical, it allows the connotation of literal meaning of the Weegee’s. In this case, the photograph sets an ideology, based on the projection that it is produced.

In regards to the Weegee’s, the icons indicate that the individual’s looks have a symbolic meaning to any viewer. This indicates that there is curtaining of culture in the photograph, owing to the fact that it is specific on time, place and iconic representation that seeks to derive certain emotions and connotation (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). People attempt to interpret images either intentional or unintentional, in order to suggest a meaning. This is done by checking on the formal elements, such as color, tone, composition and contrast among others.

The Weegee’s photograph has images of multiple personality from diverse and complex backgrounds. Although the image composes of school children in the early 1940s, who had just experienced a murder scene, it brings a collection of mixed feelings among the children. There is a heightened emotion in the photograph, as they are looking at the scene of murder with morose fascination, and this is evident in the photograph. There is neck craning and pushing, movement and emotions in their faces, which create juxtaposition at the scene of crime.

Conclusion The image reveals the social real of their culture as a cultural code. This is the nature of any picture, either mechanically or technically produced. The society is saturated with images of diverse forms and manner; however, they all make a certain representation regarding the world we live in. Thus, photographs seek to give an understanding or description of a particular thing. Therefore, it can be said that the Weegee’s image, seeks to define and describe how a first murder scene looked like for these school children in the 1940’s.

It may be argued that the actual representation gives a meaning to a photograph, depending on the shared conceptual maps in addition to the codes. It may also be important to identify certain visual codes such as ‘their first murder,’ in order for one to get the meaning of the photograph, and this is what has been regarded as the myth of photographic truth.Reference Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Washington, DC: Oxford University Press.