On Photography: A philosophical re-thinking and re-stucturing

Today most people may define photography as an art, as a hobby, and as a job. At the very basic level of defining what is photography, these definitions may be satisfactory to have an idea of what photography can be at the very end of layered processes of philosophical discussions. However, it is a fact that photography cannot be reduced to such strict definitions for those who are familiar with the philosophical background of the subject. Of course, photography may be an art, a hobby, or a job. But these extremely definite words are only the final outcomes of a complex process of thoughts even if they include and reflect the hints of the background knowledge. The superficiality of conceptualization gives clues about the inadequate knowledge of the academic and philosophical discourse of photography. Thus, the wider the knowledge, the more complex the conceptualizations.

Defining photography as an art requires a further understanding of what art is. Oxford dictionary defines art as “the use of the imagination to express ideas or feelings“. So, the concept of art in its basic definition depends on the application of human creative skill and imagination. Undoubtedly, the most common examples of art, paintings, maybe compared with photography in terms of artistic qualities and production processes. John Berger explains: “Painting is an art of arrangement: therefore, it is reasonable to demand that there is some kind of order in what is arranged. Every relation between forms in a painting is to some degree adaptable to the painter’s purpose.“¹ (Berger, 1972, p. 2) So, the paintings as integral examples of art have a certain sense of composition and they can be re-arranged and manipulated through painter’s purposes. In photography handbooks today, it is not surprising to see verbal and visual explanations about composition. The claims in these handbooks are structured around the idea of “The good photograph is the well-composed one.“² (Berger, 1972, p. 2) However, the question is if it is possible to arrange or successfully compose a photograph? Berger clarifies that: “Photography is the process of rendering observation self-conscious. We must rid ourselves of a confusion brought about by continually comparing photography with the fine arts.“³ (Berger, 1972, p. 2) So, the case of composition in an artwork does not work well for a photograph. If a photograph is defined as a “record of things seen” in a particular moment in space, the composition that a painter tries to achieve while producing a painting is not possible, or it was already provided by the space, time, and objects in the decisive moment of photographing. Berger claims that the matter of composition and arrangement is not valid for photography. “Composition in the profound, formative sense of the word cannot enter into photography.“ ⁴ (Berger, 1972, p. 2) The completely arranged studio photographs are, at this point, of course out of the discussion on the impossibility of composition in photography. Because the photographer has full control over the light conditions, the spatial qualities, and the subject’s appearances.

After the clarifications that differentiate photography from certain forms of fine arts, by considering the actual action of photographing I think the conceptualization of photography will be more reasonable. When the actual moment of photographing is considered, one can sense that moment is extraordinarily unique and decisive.  If a photograph is defined as Berger suggests in his text, as a record of things seen, it may be claimed that it is also an act of direct definition of the moment and space. Connectedly, it is a common approach to accept photographs as archival documents. The substructure of this discourse is highly associated with the concept of documentary photography. The philosopher Vilém Flusser discusses the action of photographing through documentary photography and its ability to create definitions. He denotes that a photo camera may be considered as a logical tool that may be used to produce definitions. If to photograph is to define, it should be able to include an infinite number of infinite series of photos which is called documentary photography. In order to produce proper definitions, all of the photos should be unique, which is impossible as there are infinite possibilities. So, when the concepts of the concrete world are tried to be defined by photographing, their content may be reduced. Even if Flusser suggests that a photo camera may be a logical tool to produce definitions, the lesser they achieve infinite angles the lesser their ability to define. Also, since documentary photography is achieved from specific points of view it does not render concepts properly. Its ability to define is full of misreading. This condition may weaken the thought of photography as a pure record of reality, so as a reliable document. Therefore, it is crucial to understand photography as the creator of abstract meanings rather than definitions. Due to the absence of all possible angles and moments, even documentary photography cannot achieve to produce pure evidence of reality. At this point, there is a term called creative misreading that is relevant in this frame. By producing photography, as Flusser claims, it is not possible to produce a proper definition. However, it may be possible to produce infinite meanings in the abstract level of concepts. In other words, the specific point of view makes the definition impossible, but it enables the meanings to thrive. Meanings can reach beyond the strict limitations of definitions because they are more abstract.

In the light of discussions by John Berger and Vilém Flusser on photography, I think, photography is both the event and the action of creating abstract meanings through the concept of creative misreading. Photography does not, and cannot, render reality holistically so it cannot offer proper definitions for things. Therefore, it is the act of consciously producing newer conceptions based on traces of the absolute truth, the definite and it occurs as an event due to the presence of multiple dimensions of reality. According to this, photography is closer to the realm of reality than other visual presentations are. Susan Sontag indicates: “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” Because photographs are inevitably the most real-alike reproductions of the real world. Still, that makes photographs the “pieces” of reality, not the pure reality itself. According to Sontag, the level of reality is reduced because of the interpretation of the photographer. So, there is a huge power and control of the photographer over its subject and the camera. To me, this is a way more important condition that reduces the reality of a photograph because of the photographer’s interpretation of the proper way of seeing. Even if Flusser explains the situation by discussing the infinite possibilities that exist in the reality, photographer’s interventions are direct and tend to be forgotten by the viewers. “Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience.“

In the end, I think, photography is a way of collecting the abstract pieces of reality by reproducing the definite with creative misreading in the realm of infinite possibilities.

When it comes to the practice of photography, after structuring the conceptualization of photography considering philosophical and theoretical discourses, it is necessary to identify oneself as a photographic eye. In this way, the photographer can know-how his/her photographic eye will assist them in their future studies. It is an undeniable fact that being an architecture student is a very valuable input while identification myself as a photographic eye. Especially in the realms of documentary photography, street photography, and photography on urban space, the mentality of basic design and urban architecture increase the awareness of the compositional, spatial, and social structures of the environment while practicing photography. As standing inside the common circle of these two disciplines, I see the world as a multilayered interconnected combination of objects and subjects through the camera. If the urban space is the scene that my photography will occur, the inclusion of the built environment, as well as the inhabitants, is essential. As it is in the reality, my photographic eye tries to achieve the decisive moments when the subjects and the built environment perform the unique composition. Images of empty architectural buildings, spaces, or objects without the associated subjects around do not constitute the type of images I tend to produce. From an architectural point of view, just like photography, architecture is not art as well. The difference between an untouchable perfect sculpture displayed in an exhibition and an urban space (as an architectural entity) intensely experienced by people is apparent. So interdisciplinary photographic practice of mine tends to produce images that are pieces of reality by combining the two main absolute participants of the environment. In this way, I believe, my future studies both on architecture and on photography will gain an interdisciplinary point of view and these realms will grow each other.

1 Berger, J. (1972). Understanding a Photograph. Selected Essays and Articles: The Look of Things, 2. https://www.camramirez.com/pdf/P1_Week2_BergerUndPhot.pdf

2 Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.5, Macmillan

3 Sontag, S. (1973). In Plato’s Cave. On Photography, 1–19. http://www.lab404.com/3741/readings/sontag.pdf

4 Flusser, V. (1983). Towards a Philosophy of Photography. Reaktion Books Ltd.

Reading Architectural Precedents: Mayor Mohammad Hanif Jame Mosque

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Mayor Mohammad Hanif Jame Mosque is a 1530 sqm religious complex in the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka. Designed by Shatotto, the mosque was completed in 2018. Also known as the Azimpur Mosque, the complex located in a crowded spot of the city and is adjacent to the Azimpur graveyard. It sits on a site that connects the crowded main street with the huge graveyard so it acts as a threshold space between these two contextual situations. At the center of its fragments, “the Shaan” (a traditional architectural typology) provides the transition from the road to the graveyard. The Shann is basically an extended open-to-sky terrace attached to the entrance of the main hall and it provides additional prayer space when the interior is full but otherwise acts as a social hub for the community. The mosque complex includes multiple masses housing the double-floor main prayer hall, the women’s prayer hall, the ablution spaces, a private section for the imam and the muezzin. As a way of reading the massive organization of the mosque, it can be stated that there are main mass fragments, articulated to each other by secondary masses act as joints. At this point, the main masses are; the main prayer hall, the women’s prayer hall, the service block and the minaret. These fragments are connected to each other by joints such as the staircase block, the storage space, bridges, and the ramp. The bridge also connects the two sides of the planimetric organization passing through the Shann.

In the elevations, there are several types of layering in order to get a controlled light to the interior. On the South elevation, the main prayer hall is layered by a brick wall, grid frame, and glass to control powerful sunlight in Bangladesh. Besides that, the female prayer hall has two layers of a brick wall and a tree in the middle of them due to the concerns of privacy. In the west elevation of the main prayer hall, it has only a grid frame in order to have a welcoming openness for the prayers and it is the same on the north elevation. Despite this, the east elevation of the women’s prayer hall is again multilayered just like the South elevation since it is the most sacred and private part of the mosque. It is seen that the brick wall is used for privacy concerns (also in the other elevations). On the other hand, the grid frame is used in the entrances for creating a welcoming atmosphere. The solid-void relation elevations can make the use of multiple layers of architectural elements for privacy and daylight concerns more understandable. The exploded axonometric models of the mosque complex, included in the analysis, are perfect tools to show the multilayered qualities of these two prayer halls.

The main prayer mass is carried by the two rows of mushroom columns referring to the hypostyle hall mosques. Those expanded canopies of mushroom columns work together to organize the space with the prayer bands which are in the dimension of the prayer rug. Two different grid organizations overlap with the projections of mushroom columns and additional objects located. By this means, each layer of organization stands as a space indicator for the prayers to position themselves while praying. Even though this controlled grid continues through the female prayer mass, there are no mushroom columns. As it was mentioned before there is a tree (Bakul tree) in between the brick wall layers in front of the women’s prayer hall and under the circular openness on the roof. This void on top of the tree may be a reference to the canopies of the mushroom columns while the tree itself acts as a vertical body part of the columns too.

The row of the prayer bands traces itself on the elevations of the main prayer mass and female prayer mass, too. By doing that, columns in the plan projection match with each other through the Shann. But those correspondences are broken when there is an entrance of a mass at two sides. It means that the rhythm created by the invisible lines referencing the corresponding columns in the planimetric projection is disrupted by the emergence of entrances. A prayer walking through the Shann may not be able to read the invisible reference lines matching with columns but he/she can sense the entrance parts disrupt some section of the rhythmic organization on the elevation surface. As an extension of this analysis, it is possible to make a similar reading for the main prayer hall but since the main focus is the qıbla wall and there is no additional focus zone for prayer during their worship, there is no disruptive emergence for matching the rhythmic organization.

Reading Architectural Precedents: Basuna Mosque

The Basuna Mosque was built in Egypt/Basunah in 2019 and it was designed by Dar Arafa Architecture. Most importantly it was nominated for the international Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The mosque is located in a noisy, dusty, and densely constructed area also where the climate is hot and arid. Residential buildings, a cemetery, a small market, and a dense road surround the project site. Since the site is quite shrunk between different urban structures and there is a need for orienting the mosque considering the qibla direction the project must have required a certain level of compactness.
In the frame of the “Reading Architectural Precedents” course, the action of creative misreading led us to read the mosque parts (the minaret, the main hall, entrances, staircases, etc.) as different phases of a continuous route that was folded. To provide different spatial qualities for various components, the continuous walls were multiplied as a multilayered system of walls (surfaces). So, the continuous wall routes were determined and they were unfolded by adding edge-to-edge surfaces side as an uninterrupted envelope. The main hall and other service masses were stacked through these folding walls which means the continuous walls act as the generator of potential spaces.

Response to Visual Culture, Photography and the Urban: An Interpretive Framework

Gillian Rose, basically, discusses the complex relationships and multilayered effects between photography and urban in the text. According to the text, photographs reflect, represent and re-articulate the urban. Even if the early work of photography related to urban spaces is highly descriptive it is not possible for a photograph to be objective, it is always interpretive. Recording the changing landscape of urban for years may seem to constitute a proper example for the objective recording of visual appearances since its descriptive quality almost omits the inevitable interpretative side of the practice. But as it was argued by urban scholars, the camera is never objective. So, choosing to record the changing landscape of cities at different times may even reflect an ideological position. Recording the demolishing process of İller Bankası by photographing may emerge as an ideological position rather than a descriptive and documentary act of creating visuals of urban. At this point, Rose states that “The work of re-presentation always represents both an urban scene but also a social scene…” This social scene, as an integral part of the urban scene, is provided by the idea of the “social life of objects”. With this point of view, it is quite understandable that while photographs interpret the urban places this interpretation does include different layers packed in the concept of urban. It was also an interesting discussion that some scholars use photographs of urban places as a representation that relates explicitly to other texts. That means they understand the representationality of their photographs and shoot them in a way that they are going to be the visuals for their material manifestations. It is a reasonable claim that the representational power of an urban photograph, in fact, tends to be more than of the textual/verbal descriptions.

The other possible and I think the most curious relation of a photograph with urban is about evoking the urban by conveying sensory effects. The claim evaluates urban photographs as a means of conveying visual, tactile, auditory, and olfactory effects. In this way, a very real experience of urban space may be evoked through an embodied experience, and videos and photography are quite effective to achieve that. By referencing the early discussions, photographs are, at this point, are more-than-representational. The capability of carrying sensory hints and emotions supports the understanding of the lively/multilayered materialities of urban places. It is a situation difficult to express with words but every person can experience this interesting state of getting more than visual effects while looking at an image, I assume. Rose explains “This response suggests that looking at photos requires an aesthetic sensibility rather than a semiological/discourse-analytic one: a response that takes the form of a bodily and emotional stance rather than interpretive or hermeneutic work.“

The last section consolidates the relationship between photography and urban place by discussing the concepts of the digital form of photography, cameraphone, digital mediums, social networks, and performing. Integration of daily practices that perform the urban to images through digital technologies enables re-performation of urban in a different medium. Rose explains: “In this situation, the locations and social relations that enact the urban are being constituted through a specifically digital medium, that of the social network, with its reliance on images, brief texts, comment boxes, ‘likes’ and reviews.” So, photographs require a dynamic network of social practices that can perform an urban place. Since the digitalized version of every single lively action and entity is becoming more and more popular in today’s world the capability of photographs as performative devices provides an alternative reinterpreted idea of urban in a distinct medium. This perspective is fascinatingly important and illuminative for those who try to understand the links between visual culture, urban, and photography.

On Photography In Plato’s Cave by Susan Sontag

In her seminal book, On Photography, Susan Sontag discusses the veracity of a photograph by reference to the well-known Greek allegory, Plato’s Cave. Unlike paintings and writings photographs are, according to her, are pieces of reality, not reflections. Although photographs tell things about a cut of space and time from reality, they cannot be considered independent from a certain point of view and photographer. That makes photographs the “pieces” of reality, not the pure reality itself. Still, at this point, photographs are closer to the realm of reality than other visual presentations are.
What is interesting here is the inconsistent connection between photograph and reality. It never can be a perfect and doubtless connection in fact. Sontag suggests: “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” Since photographs are inevitably the most real-alike reproductions, it is in fact to collect the reproduction of the real world. This discussion basically relates to the cave allegory of Plato by discussing the truth behind a reflection. Other than being a reproduction, as it was mentioned, it is not possible to separate the photographer from the photograph. The level of reality is reduced because of the interpretation of the photographer. So there is a huge power and control of the photographer over its subject and the camera. To me, this is a way more important condition that reduces the reality of a photograph by the photographer’s interpretation of the proper way of seeing/interpreting. Sontag explains the idea: “Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience.” Inclusion of sexuality, sentimentality, a certain point of view, desires, and even lifestyle of the shooter results in an implied reproduction of reality on a smooth surface: a photograph. The fact that in today’s world we see and process millions of images in a day and accept them as reality by forgetting the discussion Sontag has made in her text made, is clear. That means people of photograph-consumer society are not very much different from the prisoned men in Plato’s cave thinking the reflections made by other men are real. The only difference is that the modern world’s people are not kept in a primal cave, but they are both blindly and voluntarily prisoned in the cave of photographs. Knowledge of photographs and their connection with reality is, at this point, a vital requirement for an unbiased seeing of the world.

THE HUMAN CONDITION: THE CANVAS SURFACE

René François Ghislain Magritte (1898-1967) was a Belgian, painter, sculptor, photographer, and film maker, whose most recognizable work is probably “The Son of Man”. The uniqueness of his work is basically because of the thought-provocativeness. The depiction of ordinary objects in unusual contexts leads to challenging internal processes that re-evaluate the preconditioned perception of reality of the observers. The use of daily objects of which any observer has already a wide knowledge about provides a much more dramatic skepticism towards the issue because existing knowledge of objects automatically makes what is invisible visible and, what is unknown known. “For, in the simplest formulation, knowledge directs and colors the gaze, thereby making visible those aspects of objects that otherwise remain invisible (Foucault, 1975: 15)” Magritte urges the observer to ask questions about his/her biased way of looking and perceiving and he creates mystery from what the observer thinks is crystal clear. Thus many of his paintings have a great potential to be a base for discussing the issues of reality and representation as well as visibility and invisibility.

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“The Son of Man” and “The Human Condition by Rene Magritte

The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), at this point, is a seminal work of Magritte created in 1929. The picture includes a pipe and the text below it:  “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” French for “This is not a pipe.” When Magritte was asked about the issue: “Of course it’s not a pipe. Just try to fill it with tobacco.”  he replied. In fact, the painting is not a pipe, surely, rather a representation of a pipe, however, this result is not reached after an immediate moment of enlightenment. It is a rather challenging way of striving for reaching the truth. The internal thought process that questions the preconditioned and already structured way of perceiving visuality is triggered by a counter verbal explanation. Then the observer starts to differentiate the intertwined fields of objects and representations. In its purest, materiality belongs to the field of concrete objects but somehow it was extended to the field of representations due to the conventional ways of perception. As mentioned, Magritte’s painting casts doubt on the nature of appearances not only in the paintings but also in reality itself.

The actual work of Magritte that is going to be discussed in the frame of this essay is “The Human Condition (La condition humaine)” created in 1933. Magritte says: “In front of a window seen from inside a room, I placed a painting representing exactly that portion of the landscape covered by the painting. Thus, the tree in the picture hid the tree behind it, outside the room. For the spectator, it was both inside the room within the painting and outside in the real landscape.” As the painter explains, the painting displays an easel placed inside a room and in front of a curtained window. The easel holds an unframed painting of a landscape that seems complementary with the landscape seen outside the window. A small tree stands on the right of a lawn with a sky full of clouds floating above the greenery. Automatically, one can assume that the painting on the easel depicts the part of the landscape outside the window that was hidden from view. A minimal part of the curtain is overlapped by the canvas on the left of the painting.

As in “The Son of Man” Magritte uses ordinary objects in an overlapping way. Similar to the apple that hides the face of the man from view in “The Son of Man”, the canvas held by the easel hides the landscape view outside the window. However, the painting on the canvas seems almost perfectly fluent with the surrounding view due to the trompe-l’oeil (illusional) way of drawing. So the first perception of an observer is a continuous uninterrupted landscape view. Meaning that the canvas does not hide the “real” landscape behind it, but it directly shows what is behind. Due to details that differentiate canvas from the landscape view such as certain frame lines of the canvas, the observer realizes the possible discontinuity between the view presented in the canvas and the real view behind it. In fact, the landscape part that was blocked from view by the canvas on the easel, is actually completely unknown to the observer. Even if there is a possible representation of the real landscape among an infinite number of possibilities, what is invisible is unconditionally unknown. Although at the first stage of the perception, the observer sees the whole landscape as a continuous reality, after a moment’s of consideration, he/she realizes that it is just a matter of what the observer is allowed to see. The viewer does not and will not ever know the true answer to the question of “What is really behind the canvas?”

While the observer tries to evaluate the reality and the representation with respect to what is visible and what is invisible; the room, the curtains, the wooden floor, the easel, the canvas (as an object), and the landscape (the observer allowed to see) perceived as components of reality, while the painting on the canvas is the representation of the reality. At this stage, the observer unconsciously stands inside the representational world that was created by Magritte. The discussion on the reality of “painting of a painting” leads to a false premise. The “painting of a painting” idea of Magritte creates an inside-outside situation on the same surface. All in all, what is categorized as “real” and “not real” are the whole of a visual that is a representation itself. This illusional way of creating visuals, interestingly, changes the position of the observer. The viewer no longer stands in front of the painting in a gallery but he’/she stands inside the room in front of the window and discusses the painting inside the painting. It can be defined as a very successful way of including the viewer into the composition, as another object represented.  Magritte, in this way, changes the very nature of the canvas. The surface becomes penetrable and, I assume, can act as a portal that provides shifts between the field of objects and the field of representations. He not only blurred the borders between represented reality and representation, visible and invisible but also the border between the real reality and representation. In other words, all these relations and duality between terms and abstract fields have become layered.

Rene Magritte nel 1965, insieme al suo quadro “La forza delle circostanze”. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle)

On “The Human Condition (La condition humaine)”, after Magritte explaind what is in the painting he continues to explain in his letter to Belgian poet Achille Chavée;

“Which is how we see the world, namely, outside of us; although having only one representation of it within us. Similarly, we sometimes remember a past event as being in the present. Time and space lose meaning and our daily experience becomes paramount. This is how we see the world. We see it outside ourselves, and at the same time, we only have a representation of it in ourselves.”

“Questions such as ‘What does this picture mean, what does it represent?’ are possible only if one is incapable of seeing a picture in all its truth, only if one automatically understands that a very precise image does not show precisely what it is. It’s like believing that the implied meaning is worth more than the overt meaning. There is no implied meaning in my paintings, despite the confusion that attributes symbolic meaning to my painting. How can anyone enjoy interpreting symbols? They are ‘substitutes’ that are only useful to a mind that is incapable of knowing the things themselves. A devotee of interpretation cannot see a bird; he only sees it as a symbol. Although this manner of knowing the ‘world’ may be useful in treating mental illness, it would be silly to confuse it with a mind that can be applied to any kind of thinking at all.“

He basically explains the situation of what was defined as layers of canvas surface by implied meaning and real meaning. The discussion on what is the meaning inside the representation is about an implied meaning by the painter. However, he advocates, there no implied meaning in his paintings since there is just the real meaning that was detected by the observers. By definition, the implied meaning can never worth more than the overt meaning.

In his many paintings with similar methods, Magritte questions the borders of reality and representation. As the pioneer of surrealism in art, it is undoubtedly that his creating is beyond realism. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art, and conceptual art, and many forthcoming artists. As a very related example from the seminal book of John Berger, “Ways of Seeing”, describes the situation as “what distinguishes oil painting from any other form of painting is its special ability to render tangibility …[and] although its painted images are two-dimensional … [its realism can fill] space and, by implication, fill the entire world”

Mosque Spatial Analysis: Common Types

As the first step of precedent anlysis familiarization with generic mosque common types and their spatial anlysis required. The main objectives of the assignment are;
– to examine basic mosque spatial layouts in history
– formal and spatial analysis of mosques to define common types
– to reveal common elements, relationships between them that form space of a mosque

Although the mosque architecture shows variety according to place and time it is built, there are certain common architectural features in mosques all over the world. This is analytical and critical reading of the historical mosques as precedential examples in order to form a basis for the readings of the contemporary mosque examples.

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”To photograph is to define” by Vilém Flusser

“To photograph is to define” is a text that structures and explains a philosophical approach to photography. The philosopher Vilém Flusser denotes that a photo camera may be considered as a logical tool that may be used to produce definitions. The structuring explanations of this main argument has its own consistency from the first paragraph through the end. However, when the idea of “point of view” was discussed it may be more proper to change the title to “To photograph is to mean“. Because it is not possible to properly define our concepts of the concrete world, but it would be possible to mean.
By the definition of Flusser, ‘to define’ means an operation that ranges and/or delineates concepts. So strict definition tries to insert some limits to concepts of the concrete world. If to photograph is to define, it should be able to include an infinite number of infinite series of photos which is called documentary photography. Just as delineating one proper name from another, in order to produce proper definitions all of the photos should be unique, which is impossible as there are infinite possibilities to photograph. So when the concepts of our concrete world are tried to be defined by photographing, they illogically lose their content. Because the more they are abstracted, the more they are defined since the possibilities were not shrunk.
In light of these main arguments, it is I think inevitable to consider the conceptual differences between definition and meaning in the frame of documentary photography. Even if Flusser suggests that a photo camera may be a logical tool to produce definitions, the lesser they achieve infinite angles the lesser their ability to define. In this manner, fully automated cameras are more logical and achieve more angles so achieve a higher level of definition too. On the other hand, since documentary photography is achieved from specific points of view it does not render our concepts properly. Its ability to define is full of misreading. Interestingly, it may mean that misreading of a concept (rather than its pure definition) may lead to producing meanings. There is a term called creative misreading that is relevant in this frame. By producing photography, as Flusser claims, it is not possible to produce a proper definition. However, it may be possible to produce infinite meanings in the abstract level of concepts. What makes a documentary photograph a trigger for producing meanings is the absence of all angles and possibilities. In other words, the specific point of view makes the definition impossible, but it enables the meanings to thrive. Meanings can reach beyond the strict limitations of definitions because they are more abstract.
So the text by Flusser made certain definitions of words gain many different meanings depends on the reader’s positions. It was also discussed that reading an image (or photograph) is quite similar to the idea of reading a text. Reader position (background, knowledge, etc.) matches the specific point of view in photography and triggers creative misreading which leads to infinite possibilities of meanings. After I have read the text I was triggered to produce these meanings and they were all mentioned. To photograph, I advocate, is to mean.

The Suit and the Photograph by John Berger

John Berger’s chapter on the well-known photograph named “Young Farmers”, which was taken by August Sander, starts with interesting questions. By making me imagining the moment that the photograph was taken, the text gives the sense that a photograph is not shrunk between two dimensions. How did this moment happen? What Sander told them just before the moment was frozen? What were the thoughts in their minds while looking directly at the lens? Of course, we cannot know but that does not mean that we cannot try. The magical thing about photographs is that “the story may be in the eye of the beholder”. So the urge to forget all the “facts” I have learned and to make a creative misreading by rethinking Berger’s questions was irresistible to me. I went all over the photograph and focused on expressions, emotions, possible hidden speech bubbles. Since it was mentioned in the text that this photograph was a part of a unique project named “People of Twentieth Century”, skimming through the other photographs of this collection was the very nature of my curiosity.<br>The interesting thing here is that even there are many technical informative discussions on that photograph, Berger chooses to focus on one particular thing; men’s suits. At first glance, it is obvious that there is something about suits. They tell things and also do not tell things as well, I assume.John Berger’s chapter on the well-known photograph named “Young Farmers”, which was taken by August Sander, starts with interesting questions. By making me imagining the moment that the photograph was taken, the text gives the sense that a photograph is not shrunk between two dimensions. How did this moment happen? What Sander told them just before the moment was frozen? What were the thoughts in their minds while looking directly at the lens? Of course, we cannot know but that does not mean that we cannot try. The magical thing about photographs is that “the story may be in the eye of the beholder”. So the urge to forget all the “facts” I have learned and to make a creative misreading by rethinking Berger’s questions was irresistible to me. I went all over the photograph and focused on expressions, emotions, possible hidden speech bubbles. Since it was mentioned in the text that this photograph was a part of a unique project named “People of Twentieth Century”, skimming through the other photographs of this collection was the very nature of my curiosity.
The interesting thing here is that even there are many technical informative discussions on that photograph, Berger chooses to focus on one particular thing; men’s suits. At first glance, it is obvious that there is something about suits. They tell things and also do not tell things as well, I assume.

The way Berger discusses the physical character of suits and peasants who worn them was definitely inspirational for me. In each step, I have blocked out the faces/bodies of the men with my hand as Berger describes. In this way, I achieved to feel the sense of absurdity between the core and its shell, the peasants (their faces, bodies, expressions, etc.), and their suits. They tell different things. I would have never thought of such an analysis that can give clues about the social classes of society and even their physical appearance and fashion. The second photograph in which a band of musicians stands side by side consolidates Berger’s interpretation of deforming the physical identity by suits. The third photograph, on the other hand, exemplifies the sense of belonging or preservation of physical identity considering the suits and people wearing them. These particular examples made me think that similar, or even the same, things in different photographs certainly can speak distinctively in each unique photograph.<br>Through the last paragraphs, discussions, and examples on ruling and working classes and the way that they carry the tailored suits on them show me how deep and multi-dimensional a photograph can speak. It makes me want to feel the contradictions, harmony, absurdities, and more in a photograph. The way Berger discusses the physical character of suits and peasants who worn them was definitely inspirational for me. In each step, I have blocked out the faces/bodies of the men with my hand as Berger describes. In this way, I achieved to feel the sense of absurdity between the core and its shell, the peasants (their faces, bodies, expressions, etc.), and their suits. They tell different things. I would have never thought of such an analysis that can give clues about the social classes of society and even their physical appearance and fashion. The second photograph in which a band of musicians stands side by side consolidates Berger’s interpretation of deforming the physical identity by suits. The third photograph, on the other hand, exemplifies the sense of belonging or preservation of physical identity considering the suits and people wearing them. These particular examples made me think that similar, or even the same, things in different photographs certainly can speak distinctively in each unique photograph.
Through the last paragraphs, discussions, and examples on ruling and working classes and the way that they carry the tailored suits on them show me how deep and multi-dimensional a photograph can speak. It makes me want to feel the contradictions, harmony, absurdities, and more in a photograph.

As Berger imagines that these three young farmers with their suits on reached the dance, had some beer, and saw beautiful women there. Then they probably took off their jackets and untied their ties and danced. Imagining the end of the night by referencing the photograph and all the discussions, made me smile unconditionally.As Berger imagines that these three young farmers with their suits on reached the dance, had some beer, and saw beautiful women there. Then they probably took off their jackets and untied their ties and danced. Imagining the end of the night by referencing the photograph and all the discussions, made me smile unconditionally.

A Glossary for a Comparative History on Architecture and Domestic Furniture in Modern Turkey | Final

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