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The Narrative Constructive Essay

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The Narrative Constructive Essay
Constructive Narrative Essay
Wiltshire College Salisbury/Bournemouth University
BA (Hons) Photography – Year 1
Katie Stubbings

In Photography, there are many different styles and techniques used, every single photograph is constructed; from the setting up of equipment, finding the model, producing the set, taking the images, and finally choosing and editing final images. You can also de-construct many images, and produce a narrative towards the photo, create a story and being able to produce a meaning in your own way, or what you think the photographer is trying to create behind the image itself. Photography is also a piece of art, not just a picture; every photo a person takes, produces a symbol in some way, such as a symbol in a painting, almost like a meaning. This is the same as a photo; every photo has a meaning no matter what the meaning is or if each person has a different meaning to the photo.
My main focus for this essay, is on the juxtaposition and the semiotics of a photograph. As Barthe 's theory highlights semiotics is a sign; a sign of which can be a simple road sign, or even a sound or body language, but it can also be to a great extent a photograph or a painting; this highlights the fact that everything has a meaning, not all meanings will be the same, everyone has their own interpretations. As discussed, in Barthe 's Dialectics 1, he suggests that images represent 2 messages; one of which is the denoted message, the construction of an image an what is in it, its 'photographic message ' and secondly the connoted message; our own interpretation of the image itself. In each photograph, each person has their own idea of a reality within the image, therefore relating this to the essay, juxtaposition with 2 images can always have a reality and meaning, and each photo will link in some way due to every photographer having an intention or message they wanted to display, creating a narrative. Alfred Hitchcock, 2 stated that 'Although, the camera is



References: http://margaretstrickland.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/barthes-dialectics/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock http://heidiangelac.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/felicia-webb/# http://www.mariotestino.com/ http://feliciawebb.co.uk/small.html http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/felicia-webb/ Word Count: Essay: 2751

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