Book Assignment #2- Chapter 3

1. Barrett's thesis for the chapter is that with photos in order to fully understand them you must try to figure out what the photographer is trying to get across. You do this by interpreting the photo and make your own assumptions on the content. To do this you have to not only think about what the photo means to the artist but also about what the photo means to you. By putting those thoughts together you will be able to make a good interpretation of a photo. Because of the way that you make these interpretations they will be different for everyone and not one photo has only one interpretation.

2. The author of this Chapter uses many primary sources of actual photographs as well as the interpretations from critics about those photographs. One photo he uses a lot is PLATE 5 which is a photo by Harry Callahan titled Eleanor which, is a photo of a women with her left forearm across her forehead and her right hand grabbing her left bicep. This photo is accompanied by three different interpretations of the photo to show that there are many different approaches/styles of interpreting a photograph.


3. Interpretation is when we look at something and make sense of what we are seeing and make conclusions on it based on what we think. To do this we have to ask ourselves a series of questions that have to do with what it is that we are physically seeing as well as to what we think think the subject is trying to convey. With the series of questions we are able to draw our own conclusions as to how to see the piece.

4. Barrett thinks that it is important to interpret photos because he thinks that in order for them to be fully appreciated and understood we must go through the process of asking the those questions. He believes that every picture has something special to say and people need to recognizes its communication and expressive purpose. With taking the time to analyze the photos we will be able to uncover the truth.

5. The three types interpretive perspectives are A Comparative Interpretation, An Archetypal Interpretations and A Feminist Interpretation. The other interpretive strategies are Psychoanalytic Interpretation,  Formalist Interpretation, Semiotic Interpretation, Marxist Interpretation, Interpretation Based on Stylistic Influences, Biographical Interpretation, Internationalist Interpretation and Interpretation Based on Technique. The one that stood out to me the most was probably the example of the Psychoanalytic Interpretation probably because you can take something so simple like naked dolls and turn it into something so meaningful. It is really powerful to try to analyze something that another person did and try to figure out what they meant by all of it. I feel like you can do that with a lot of things and not just this example of dolls. Everything means something so, I never expect anything to not have a purpose.

6.   What the author is trying to say in this section is that you can't just say anything that comes out of your head and say that it is an interpretation. You have to be convincing to other people that you somewhat understand what the artist was trying to get across. This means that your statements must be insightful, meaningful, revealing and plausible. To do this you must correspond with the artwork and make sure that what you are talking about goes along with what you are seeing and also it must be coherence and make sense on its own.

7. The point that Barrett is trying to get across in this section is that someone's (even the artist's) interpretation is one of many. Photographers sometimes don't know/ don't want to put their reasoning behind the photo that they have created. Because of this, it is up to the critics to make sense of all of it. With this, there will be many different opinions about what one photograph actually means and so therefore, one on interpretation is correct over the other. Even if the artist has something to say about his/her piece it is only one person's opinion over hundreds and everyone will see it differently.

8. One key point i've learned by reading this is that there really is no wrong answer and that all interpretations are valid as long as you can back it up. You can base interpretations on not only intellectual endeavors but also on what feelings you get from the photo. Art is there to trigger something so let it. Another thing I learned was that, there is a direct difference between significance and meaning which I did not know. According to the chapter, Significance is more personal and it is based on what the person analyzing the artwork finds important. Meanwhile, meaning is way more objective which refers to what the photograph can infer on its own and not what is inferred by the one person.

9. Barrett sums up the chapter by talking about the community of the people that interoperate these photos. He states that they are very particular with the interpretations that are presented to them because they know the worth of the photos and the worth of art in general. They have a very specific dialogue that they follow when talking about these works and Barrett says that if we follow what he states in this chapter that we will be able to comment on these photos with them in a educated manner.