Two: Man Ray, Serrano by capitalism

1 00 ASSIGNMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 INTRODUCTION 02 COMPARISON 03 COMPOSITION 04 COLOR 05 REFERENTIAL 06 TYPEFACES 07 AESTHETIC LEVEL 08 DISCURSIVE LEVEL 09 THIRD PHOTO

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05 09 13 25 31 41 47 51 57

01 INTRODUCTION This goal of this book is to demonstrate an understanding of how two photographs communicate meaning in the same way. By breaking down the photograph into parts and understanding how they work, this book will provide a rhetorical and visual analysis of the photographs Rayograph (The Kiss) by Man Ray and Hercules punishing Diomedes (part I and II) by Andres Serrano. Images have the potential to make an argument because they can offer a enthymematic process in which something is condensed or omitted, and, as a consequence, it is up to the spectator to provide the unspoken premises.1 Some forms of analyses are best expressed through language, however when examining visual documents, there is a benefit to presenting analyses both rhetorically and visually.

Kjeldsen, Jens E., â&#x20AC;&#x153;Virtues of visual argumentation: How pictures make the

importance and strength of an argument salientâ&#x20AC;? (2013). OSSA Conference Archive. 89.

6 01 INTRODUCTION

Rayograph (The Kiss) Man Ray 1922

A photogram is a picture made on model to which we can compare it,” notes curator photographic paper without the aid of a camera. John Szarkowski. A Surrealist might have said, To make this one, Man Ray exposed the paper to instead, that it discloses a reality all the more light at least three times. Each time a different precious because it is otherwise invisible. Man set of objects acted as a stencil: a pair of Ray claimed to have invented the photogram not hands, a pair of heads kissing, and two darkroom long after he emigrated from New York to Paris in trays, which seem almost to kiss each other with 1921. Although, in fact, the practice had existed their corner spouts. With each exposure, the since the earliest days of photography, he was paper darkened where it was not masked. justified in the artistic sense, for in his hands the photogram was not a mechanical copy but an It is impossible to say which planes of unpredictable pictorial adventure. He called his the picture are to be interpreted as existing photograms “rayographs.” closer or deeper in space. The picture is a visual invention: an image without a real-life

7 01 INTRODUCTION

Hercules punishing Diomedes (part I and II) Andres Serrano 1991

Claiming, “I don’t think my work is shocking,” Andres Serrano is (in)famous for his unflinching color photographs of controversial subjects, including Ku Klux Klansmen, dead bodies, feces, handguns, and Catholic figurines submerged in bodily fluids.

References to Catholic iconography and doctrine run throughout his work.

Carefully composed, suffused with light, and saturated with color, his photographs appear painterly, their subjects framed with an eye towards such classical sculptural qualities as He is perhaps best known for Piss Christ form, mass, and balance. “I call myself an artist (1987), a shockingly beautiful close-up of with a camera,” Serrano explains, “because I a plastic crucifix suspended in urine, which studied painting and sculpture.” scandalized Jesse Helms during the American Culture Wars. Serrano’s photographs are shaped by his training in painting and sculpture and informed by his strict Roman Catholic upbringing.

02 COMPARISON Pictures are able to provide vivid presence (evidential), realism and immediacy in perception1, which is difficult to achieve with words only. Pictures are rich in visual information, because they provide innumerable details for the eye. We may say that pictorial representation has the ability of performing a sort of “thick description”2, which in an instant may provide a full sense of an actual situation and an embedded narrative connected to certain lines of reasoning. This visual richness and semantic “thickness” disappears if we reduce the pictorial representation to nothing more than “thin” propositions.3

Kjeldsen, J. E. (2012b). Four rhetorical qualities of pictures. Paper

presented at the 15th Biennial RSA Conference. May 25-28, 2012. The Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA 2

Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of

culture. In The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays (pp. 3–30). New York: Basic Books.

Kjeldsen, Jens E., “Virtues of visual argumentation: How pictures make the

importance and strength of an argument salient” (2013). OSSA Conference Archive. 89.

10 02 COMPARISON

11 02 COMPARISON

SOURCE IMAGE

SHAPE

DETAILS

SILHOUETTE

RUPTURE

03 COMPOSITION Both photographs are divided into a 25 x 25 grid total). By counting the individual boxes, an estimate on how much space a specific element takes up in the The next exercise breaks down the photos into parts analyze the composition.

(625 boxes can be made photograph. in order to

14 03 COMPOSITION

SOURCE IMAGE

FOREGROUND

25 X 25 GRID

BACKGROUND

15 03 COMPOSITION

SOURCE IMAGE

FOREGROUND

25 X 25 GRID

BACKGROUND

16 03 COMPOSITION

17 03 COMPOSITION

FACES 39% of image 246/625 boxes

18 03 COMPOSITION

THE SPLIT 21% of image 130/625 boxes

19 03 COMPOSITION

HANDS 40% of image 249/625 boxes

20 03 COMPOSITION

21 03 COMPOSITION

PISS 20% of image 123/625 boxes

22 03 COMPOSITION

FRAME 19% of image 119/625 boxes

23 03 COMPOSITION

BODIES 61% of image 383/625 boxes

04 COLOR The following section analyzes the pixels in the photographs to identify the colors present in the images, derive a set of color palettes listing the area percentage of each color, hex number, and the identifying the closest color name. Extraction of detailed color information from the photographs was done using MulticolorEngine API, an image search engine that finds images based on their common colors.

26 04 COLOR

AREA

HEX

COLOR

25.4%

#8C2017

RED OCHRE

19.4%

#262020

ASPHALT

17.8%

#B1331A

FIRE BRICK

12.1%

#CC9926

BUTTERCUP

12%

#C5621D

ALLOY ORANGE

6.2%

#70261B

RED BERRY

4.2%

#CAAE2A

GINGER GOLD

COLOR MAP REGIONS

28 04 COLOR

AREA

HEX

COLOR

51.9%

#5E5955

CHICAGO GREY

23.2%

#39312E

ACADIA BROWN

16.4%

#D2CEC6

WESTAR GRAY

8.6%

#8E8A84

SUVA GREY

COLOR MAP REGIONS

05 REFERENTIAL This section contains referential images relating to each photograph. These images function to create a visual context, where images relate to the photograph in form, content, atmosphere, or subject matter. All these visual references provide a thick and rich description of a situation, providing the photograph with plenitude.1 We may say that photographs, in principle, are imprecise, but rich in information. Photos have the potential to provide presence as well as “thick descriptions”.2

Barthes, R. (1977). Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana Press.

Kjeldsen, Jens E., “Virtues of visual argumentation: How pictures make the

importance and strength of an argument salient” (2013). OSSA Conference Archive. 89.

32 05 REFERENTIAL

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Surrealism has always courted accidents, welcomed the uninvited, flattered disorderly presences. What could be more surreal than an object which virtually produces itself, and with a minimum of effort? An object whose beauty, fantastic disclosures, emotional weight are likely to be further enhanced by any accidents that might befall it?â&#x20AC;? - Susan Sontag

33 05 REFERENTIAL

Man Ray’s photos, abstract, show a honed the effect areas appear light

though sometimes gritty or knack for experimenting. He of solarization, where dark or light areas appear dark.

He played with what he called “rayographs,” or photograms made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of photographic paper and then exposing it to light.

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36 05 REFERENTIAL

37 05 REFERENTIAL

Man Ray’s photos, though sometimes gritty or abstract, show a knack for experimenting. He honed the effect of solarization, where dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark. He played with what he called “rayographs,” or photograms made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of photographic paper and then exposing it to light.

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06 TYPEFACES Information gathered through research on both the photographs and photographers thus far was used to inform the typeface choices in the following section. Each photograph is paired with a typeface released the same year the photograph was taken. Height, weight, genre, form, and style also played a key role in the typeface selection.

42 06 TYPEFACES

Kabel Light Klingspor Type Foundry 1922 Rayograph (The Kiss) Man Ray 1922

43 06 TYPEFACES

In 1927, the Klingspor Type Foundry released Rudolf Koch’s original Kabel in just one weight. Various interpretations of Kabel, both licensed and pirated, sprouted during the phototype era. Photograms are made by placing objects onto photographic paper and then exposing it to light, whereas photo-typesetters set type by projecting light through a film negative of an individual character onto photographic paper. In 1922, Man Ray transferred the silhouette of a pair of hands and heads in “Rayograph (The Kiss)”. Transitions in typesetting and photographic technology greatly influenced the construction of this photograph as well as Kabel Light. Contrasting well against the abstract style of Man Ray’s photogram, Kabel’s geometric shape loosely follows the structure of the circle and straight lines. Kabel’s fine stroke, sans-serif structure, delicately low x-height, and irregularly angled terminals make it appear delicate and unusual. Offsetting well against the more fractured and elegant style of Man Ray’s photogram, this typeface works well to convey expressionist qualities while still being readable. Just as Man Ray’s photograms revealed a new way of seeing through layered exposures, Kabel showed a new way seeing type through its acceptance of optical understandings of typography in lieu of strict modular rules.

44 06 TYPEFACES

Century Gothic Monotype Imaging 1991 Hercules Punishing Diomedes Andres Serrano 1991

45 06 TYPEFACES

In 1991, Andres Serrano released the photograph “Hercules Punishing Diomedes”. The same year, Monotype Imaging released Century Gothic. Balancing well against the muscular form of the Hercules and Diomedes sculpture, this modern, sans-serif typeface offers a satisfying combination and easy readability. Century Gothic directs the eye to its spacious design and wide, circular characters. In “Hercules Punishing Diomedes”, the eye is drawn to the yellow-orange light hitting Diomedes round, plump face in the lower left and the spherical-shaped butt cheek in the upper right. The round structure and geometric form of Century Gothic can be paired well with the curvaceous, sculptural qualities of Hercules and Diomedes. If placed on top of the photograph, Century Gothic’s characters function to outline the circular, muscular shape of the Greek mythological figures, guiding the eye to read the text as a part of the contemporary photograph. Century Gothic offers a solid stroke and its rounded structure makes it a great typeface for display work.

AESTHETIC LEVEL

Verbal language is strongly coded. If we encounter the sentence “In the photograph, two faces are kissing”, we will respond in a conceptual, general and abstract way. We might mentally construct a sort of average and general – and seemingly unambiguous – conception of the event “two faces are kissing”. We do this without knowing what the faces looks like, who they are, how they are kissing, what angle we see them at, what they’re wearing, or what their names are. Words alone provide no information about all this.1 However, when verbal language is combined with visual conditions of a photograph, there is potential to find rich information. In this section, typographical exercises focus on the aesthetic level of each photograph. Using the selected typefaces from the previous section, the following exercises will verbally describe the image on the aesthetic level, using a visual treatment that borrows composition, color scheme, and other visual components from the photographs. Through borrowing from the composition, the image is replaced and reconstructed by typography.

Kjeldsen, Jens E., “Virtues of visual argumentation: How pictures make the

importance and strength of an argument salient” (2013). OSSA Conference Archive. 89.

48 07 AESTHETIC

Man Ray’s “Rayograph (The Kiss)”, appears to be composed of four layers: the background, the kiss, the hands, and the diagonal rupture. The flat, dark background isolates all of the visual elements. Layered on top of the background is a dark gray silhouette of two faces. Cropped from the eyebrow region to the top of the neck, the heads are shown from the side profile, facing each other with their noses touching and their lips pursed in the moment of a kiss. The third layer is a light gray silhouette of two hands overlayed on the faces kissing. On the other hand, the shade of gray slightly blends with the color of the head and possesses the visual qualities of a motion blur, suggesting the hand is captured in a moment of action. The last layer is the diagonal rupture. It has the most substantial visual impact on the photograph since it completely disrupts the layers beneath it. This layer creates a slit between an emotional moment, tearing through the entire composition not only in the middle, but also at the top right and bottom left, interfering with the heads and hands on both sides.

49 07 AESTHETIC

A diptych separates the photograph into two halves, with a black frame border along the edges. Comprised of mostly yellow, orange, and red tones, the photograph captures a moment of tension where the muscles of the two male figures suggest a direct confrontation. With the subject in the foreground, the background is eliminated by a blurry haze. In the foreground, the two figures are pictured frozen, isolated, and glowing in a red pool of urine. The male figure with his back toward the viewer has his left leg wrapped over the other figureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legs, in a wrestling position. A great sense of depth can be felt from not only the sculptural qualities of the image, but also due to the submerging of the image in yellow-red tones. We can see how areas closer to the camera are more in focus, while the features farther away are blurred to the point where everything has completely vanished. The eye is directed towards the highlights, where we can see the yellow-orange light hitting the round shape of the face on the lower left corner and the butt cheek in the upper right corner.

DISCURSIVE LEVEL

Verbal utterances provide, in principle, precise, but thin information. With pictures such as photographs this is different. A picture of two faces kissing shows us not only what their faces looks like, but also what they are wearing, how they are kissing what angle we see them at, what’s behind him and in front of him. Furthermore, the photograph is necessarily taken from a certain angle, with a certain distance, in a certain light with a certain lens. Such conditions contribute in creating the meaning – and thus the potential argumentative dimensions – of the photograph.1 The discursive exercise in this section represents a more descriptive way of describing, mostly combined to things we feel and how we interpret given ‘signs’ based on opinions and values. Composition is borrowed from the previous exercise to continue a replacement of the photograph with typography.

Kjeldsen, Jens E., “Virtues of visual argumentation: How pictures make the

importance and strength of an argument salient” (2013). OSSA Conference Archive. 89.

52 08 DISCURSIVE

53 08 DISCURSIVE

Through the humanistic qualities in combination with this stark rupture, one can infer that it carries a heavy, emotional weight. Perhaps, the disruption suggests a split or break between the kissing figures. To create this particular image, one can infer it was made as a photogram, due to its title, “Rayograph (The Kiss)”. Man Ray uses the term rayograph to depict the process of making photograms, which involves placing objects onto photographic paper and then exposing it to light. To create the layered image, Man Ray must have transferred the silhouette of the hands and then the heads. Man Ray used photograms to produced layered images with inanimate objects as well as his own body. In this image, Man Ray portrays his lover at the time, Kiki de Montparnasse as the figure on the left and himself as the figure on the right. Through the gesture of blurring the lines between objects and events, “Rayograph (The Kiss)” evokes some of the surrealist qualities of photography. The process of producing the photogram, as well as the accidents that could have emerged from it, enhance not only the image’s beauty emotional weight, but also its abstract, poetic, dramatic, and autobiographical elements. The style and purpose of this photograph seem to want to reject the norms of painting and photography in order to produce a new, layered way of experiencing reality.

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By looking at the photo’s title, “Hercules Punishing Diomedes”, we can infer that photograph is not only an image of a sculpture, but also that the figure facing the camera is Diomedes. This can be inferred since the photograph is taken of the sculpture named, “Hercules and Diomedes” by Fratelli Alinari, which depicts Hercules throwing Diomedes to the human-flesh eating mares. By strictly looking at the photograph, it is unclear whether the photograph or the statue is submerged in urine. However, looking to the rest of Serrano’s work we can learn that his photographs from his Immersion series were created by photographing photos submerged in urine. Greek mythological figures reference religious iconography as well as a large history of Italian Renaissance sculpture. The photograph conveys a tremendous force compacted and squished into a small frame. Within these two frames we can see two halves of unmistakable force stemming from Greek mythology. The image shows a strong and powerful Hercules and a clearly distressed Diomedes. We can see the vulnerability of Diomedes, who at this moment is captured at a moment where he is in trouble. The sculpture proves that the 16th century Italians who commissioned it had a tough sense of humor. While the photograph underscores Andres Serrano’s controversial and twisted take on classical icons, investigating the relationship between a beautiful, yet violent story submerged in human urine. Politicized elements can be read by this gesture of using bodily fluids as a medium. Urine carries significance, one thing being the possibility of infections through bodily fluids (AIDS crisis in the 80s etc). The submerging of the photo in the urine is what results in the warm monochrome tones and blurry perspective that make up the photo. Using alternative methods to compose the photograph says a lot about the relationship between the photographer and subject.

THIRD PHOTO

Having researched both photographs and being familiar with the content, a third image is created in this series. The third photograph is taken based off of the research and comments on the context from the original photographs.

58 09 THIRD PHOTO

59 09 THIRD PHOTO