Answer the following questions in your workbooks and be prepared to discuss all questions in class. It may be easier for you to type up the answers and then stick them in your workbook. That way you can copy & paste quotes if you need to. 1. How does Barthes distinguish a punctum from visual heterogeneity? 2. What is the difference between punctum and studium? 3. What makes a photograph "one of the most complex and most problematic forms of representation"? 4. Did you make a connotative reading of "Identical Twins" before reading the author's discussion of it? What is the main connotative meaning of the image? How does the photographer help convey it? 5. Interpretation of art, photography included, is clearly very subjective. Making an educated judgement on meaning of particular elements generally requires understanding of photographers' intent, at times only possible through the study of their theoretical viewpoint of the subject. What evidence or clues does Clarke present of Diane Arbus' intent? (images 7,8) 6. Name images (if any) in either reading that you identify as having a punctum. Explain your choice (or lack thereof). 7. What similarities can you reflect on between Lee Friedlander's "Route 9W New York", 1969 and Matthew Brady's "General Robert Potter and Staff. Matthew Brady Standing by Tree", 1865? 8. What is your denotative reading of Diane Arbus' "A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, New York, 1969"? And how many connotative elements can you pick up on?
Diane Arbus, Identical Twins, 1967
Diane Arbus, "A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, New York, 1969"