Intricate Relationship Between Photography and Film - Essay Example

Beyond the artist or producer’s annotations on technology, often the audience is made aware of the fragile nature of portraying time within the work. Using a few film clips and reading examples, the paper will expound on the complex relationship between film and photography. Roland Barthes’ writing “The face of Garbo” clearly reflects one of the many intricate relationships between cinematography, film, and photography. In his work, Barthes idealizes actress Greta Garbo’s image. Garbo was undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s most beautiful women in the 1930s; these were a period were imagery and film were akin.

Before Hollywood’s golden age of the 30s, demand for photos and images for actors was just starting to take root. The 1920s saw the demand for actors and actresses’ photos rise. With this demand, the photography of many actors became idealized. Some critic even believed that many actors would be nothing without their photography. Greta Garbo’s photographs portray a specific mood, a type of flavour, a larger than life feeling. The movie Camille Garbo, evoke similar sentiments in the audience.

In the movie, Greta plays the role of Marguerite Gautier a beautiful young woman who eventually becomes known as Dame Camille. For years, Camille’s beauty was her main source of livelihood. Her beauty seduces one Baron de Varville to cover her finances. Garbo’s looks in the movie Camille plunge the audience into an elation that has equal magnitudes as her photos. The last twenty years have seen exponential improvement in technology. The fields of film and photography have not been left out in this aura.

Today, Photoshop is prevalent in virtually all photographic work on the internet, galleries and museums. In her work, “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” photographer Nan Goldin is concerned about this implication. The ballad of sexual dependency spans from 1976 to the 80s is a work of reality and depicts Goldmines life. Goldin has an intrinsic belief that the art must and should be “real” no manipulation or artifice. She laments,

“I am terrified that everything I believe about photography, about this work, is over because of the computer and easy manipulation of images it facilitates.