Language and Photography
The idea that images can spill into language conjures concepts (or non-concepts) of deconstructionist thinkers such as Derrida. I am researching presently Derrida's writings about silent words - tacit speech - and Foucault's examination of differance, in relationship to photographic images. Where, if there is any, a conceptual basis for the visual language - in the way images may be understood as texts - to express thoughts with the use of a silent language. The expression of different meanings and their power structures and struggles in society. It is commonly held that the written word has an instant authority over the spoken. The photographic image, once a spectacle for truth, a lawgiver, has been challenged and subverted by the digital age. Where now does the photographic image stand in a social power struggle?The political use of photographic images is also very important to examine along the same lines. Just as the American Government during the Vietnam War used language to disguise the truth while the journalistic images told another story, now current governments embed photojournalists and arrange particular symbolic visual acts to fervour popular support or tell a story/narrative. viz a vi The collapse of Saddam Husseins stature in Baghdad.
Labels: art