Robert Capa, Image analyise

For my object analysis I have decided to select a photo of Robert Capa taken on Omaha beach on the 6^th June 1944, afterwards know as D-day. The picture shows a United States soldier in the ocean with water up to his chest, the image is very grainy and is short in black and white. To get these photos Capa landed with the first wave of soldiers to land on Omaha beach, placing himself in great danger during the process.

What happened next has become legendary. During the development of the films a lab technician accidentally turned the temperature up to high on the dryer and melted the film, only 11 images survived (Aperture Foundation, 1996).

I wish to start by at looking at this picture purely by analysing it aesthetically. The large amount of grain is more reminiscent of a snapshot and makes it appear more real. Its strong contrast and motion blur makes it seem action packed and exciting. It also marks it out as a photograph of a real evident as opposed to being staged or shoot in a studio.

The image was shot on 35mm film, with a high ISO, and was badly focused. It is akin to the U-tube style aesthetic, with its low quality and amateurishly shot footage that has become a byword for real within contemporary society. Capa’s photos could be seen as a forerunner to this.

Its aesthetic content is clearly not adequate to explain why this image is so emotive and iconic. To discover this we will have to look at the context of these images and what their destruction means to us.

The idea of a photograph is to capture a moment in time, preserving it for all to see. As Elaine Scarry point out “Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take photographs of it” (Scarry, 2006, p3) this desire to look at beauty and create copy of it to preserve it means that its destruction is alien to us, think of the gallery ethos, conserving paintings so that we can continue to gaze at them. Capa’s photos may be macabre or horrifying but that doesn't stop them from being beautiful and certainly doesn't stop it being unique. There destruction represents a loss of beauty as well as a waste of effort and risk on Capa’s part. Coupled with the potential loss of the soldier they serve to create a poignant story of loss and regret.

The most important part of this image is clearly then its narrative denotations, the images and the stories that go with them are connected, whenever one is shown the others shown with it. They are probably almost as famous as the photos themselves, it has become iconic. The actual images are not its mind numbingly beautifulness or originality, it is their context and gives them their strength.

It is not only this image that uses narrative, it is all images. When you see the picture of a man you think who is he, where does he come from, it weather it was staged as well as a myriad of other questions. This is particularly true for photography, as people often see it as based on a real event. To explain this it is necessary to look at how it is used in other photos.

Take the “death of a loyalist soldier” also by Capa, it is of a soldier fighting in the Spanish civil war and captured the moment after he was shoot but before he had hit the ground, between life and death. Aesthetically it has many similarities to his d-day images and like his d-day images people have often talked about it’s context, in this case whether it was faked or not to the extent of the subject still being topical 72 years later. (Johnson, 2008)

Another example of this is Steve McCurry’s photo “Afghan girl”, it was not enough for him to take the photo, he had to go back and find her, as if the story was as important as the image itself. (Braun, 2003)

The same was true for the work of Diana Arbus when the makers of “the genius of photography” found the child holding the grenade. (The Genius of Photography, 2007)

None of these people revealed anything extra about the power of the images themselves from a visual perspective, the quest to find them can only be explained by a need for narrative.

As it was for McCurry and Arbus so it was for Capa, the man’s name was Houston Reilly and he lives just outside Seattle (Boyle, 2007).

If you look at the world you see repeatedly how people create their own stories and meaning from an image. This is supported by the work of the sociologist Anthony Gibbins who states are people have a need for narrative and that they use it to model their own lives on (Gauntlett, 2008). Finding the people in these photographs is a way to complete their story and bring it to some conclusion.

In Ways of Seeing John Berger said that a piece of art cannot be interpreted without its context (Berger, 1977), the truth is this context is part of the art.

Capa’s work should not be seen in terms of line and form but as a narrative he only partly intended to create. The way we interpret a piece of visual imagery is based not just its physical appearance but on the symbols of its narrative history. This history can add the depth to an artist’s work. In Capa’s depiction of d-day it is clear that it is this narrative where the images power comes from, the fact that they needed to find the individual shown clearly supports this view. By depicting a story and being part of the wider story of the Second World War this image managed to became iconic.

Bibliography

Berger, J. (1977) Ways of seeing. London: Penguin.

Scarry, E. (2006) On beauty and being just. 2^nd ed. London: Princeton university press.

Gauntlett, D. (2008) Media, Gender and Identity. 2^nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

Braun, D. (2003). How They Found National Geographic's "Afghan Girl". [online]. National geographic. Available from: http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat_2.html [Accessed on 22nd November 2010, at 19.54].

The genius of photography (2007) Episode five, We are Family. London: BBC4. 23^rd October 2007 [Television Series].

Aperture Foundation, (1996). Robert Capa photography. Hong Kong: Aperture Foundation

Boyle, C. (2007) G.I. in classic D-Day image to visit exhibit featuring photo. [Online] New York daily news. Available from: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/09/23/2007-09-23_gi_in_classic_dday_image_to_visit_exhibi-2.html [Accessed on 29th November 2010 at 23.14]

Johnson, A (2008) New evidence on mystery of famous 'faked' soldier photo [Online]. The Independent. Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/new-evidence-on-mystery-of-famous-faked-soldier-photo-937000.html [Accessed on the 29th November 2010 at 22.07

Why i do photography

The first thing that drew me to photography was my need to create, a physical desire that makes me make things.

I have grown to think like a photographer, when I look at the world I see light and line, reality and the imaginary, it has changed the way I see photography.

I further believe that it has the ability to be a tool for self analysis, the fact that you can learn about yourself, as though it is a metaphorical representation of my mind.

I have also developed an Interest in philosophy, and how it can be visual representation by photography. This is part of greater Interest in ideas, a wish to know everything, a fervent curiosity about knowledge that increases for the more I learn the more I realise there is to learn. It transforms into a wish for truth, but my own inability to know what truth is holds me back.

I have a dislike traditional forms and values of photography, as I am to socially awkward to photograph people and don’t have the means of travel to take landscape photos I have found that outside of college I tend to photograph the street. But not traditionally method, more in the meandering manner during which I tend to end up photographing nothing.

When I take these photographs I try and capture beauty but I have developed a deep mistrust over it as I fear it detracts from truth, that it adds value beyond its use, also in reaction against the picturesque.

It ultimately adds up to an uncertainty over how to act as a photographer, I am lost, without purpose, I don’t know why I photograph what I photograph. I am a firm believer in the power of photography and its power to change things, but have no idea how I can use it.

It is also important to remember that I am constantly changing as I go through the education process, my interest in ideas mean that the way I look at photography alters. I am unable to know why I take photographs if my feelings constantly changing. This lack of a constant is highly reviling, if you bear in mind what I mentioned earlier about my need to consume knowledge and photography’s self analytical properties. The discourse of photography is a means of conveying information, the visual arts in particular could be described as a copy of the world. A copy that is clearer and more predictive than the original and from which I can discern the truth.

I am uncertain about the purpose of my work because I am uncertain about my purpose in life. It is a crisis of existentialism.

Satsumas and the search for TRUTH

Within societys past and present the idea of beauty has been linked perminantly with the idea of good, from St. Augustin to Plato good and beauty where one and the same.

This is, when you think of it, a strange concept. Amelia Jessica is just as likely to kill you as Susan Boil, just because your clothes look good doesn't mean they keep them warmer. We believe that just because something is beautyful it has more value.

This belief isn't immoral, its an emotional response, it's the way where made, but i think it also deducts from truth, so i intend to subvert the idea of truth.

Enter the Satsumas. My intention is to take traditional still life and instead of having food and letting it rot.

Unfortaintly they don't look quite as green in black and white. : (

At least it's a start.