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This thesis challenges the notion that landscape can be seen or thought as a picture i.e. in terms of its modern definition and etymology. In questioning the modern definition of landscape the thesis asks a number of specific questions: does the etymology of landscape yield any latent meanings which may be profitably explored? Can these be used as the basis for a new formulation of landscape i.e. ‘landtext’ or landscape as text? The thesis goes on to consider what the implications of this are. Importantly, this thesis is practice based which has entailed that the work is interdisciplinary in nature, the working method amounts to a dialogue between disciplines. The practice with which the thesis concerns itself is photography and it has been a pivotal component of this research to consider photography in terms of Jacques Derrida’s expanded field of writing. The photograph as a motif of the metaphysics of presence, a Barthesean emanation, is presented in relation to Derrida’s grammatology, or generalised system of difference. Critically this thesis asks is photography a form of writing? If so, what are the consequences of this for the relation between photographic writing, or as it is termed here, photogrammatology and landtext? The thesis explores whether intertextuality adequately describe the nexus of relations between each of the systems of difference. Due to the practice led nature of the project, a significant consideration has been the implication of a relational, text based understanding of practice for the viewer or reader in the gallery. To this end the thesis investigates relational aesthetics vis à vis text with a view to theorising photographic practice in a gallery setting in terms of a text which the reader enters. In addition, the role of light in the intertextual relation is considered, especially with respect to the articulation of difference.

1826 is the date attributed to the very first known photograph, Nicephore Niepce's "View from the Window at Gras." For traditional historians of photography this date marks the moment when the genius of man was finally able to merge the knowledge of chemistry with that of optics to create the most amazing technology of visual representation. However, those same historians recognize that the two essential components of photography---the camera and the properties of silver halides---had been known for centuries before the first photograph was ever taken. / This thesis explores two fundamental questions: Why wasn't photography invented soon after its major technological components were discovered c. 1650? And why was it invented in the early decades of the nineteenth century c. 1830? This gap of some 200 years separating the feasibility of photography from its actualization has remained largely unexplained. / The answers to both questions is found by situating the genealogy of the invention of photography within the development of the Western philosophy of vision. The fact that photography was invented at the junction of the Classical and Modern epistemes offers a unique opportunity to approach the history of photography from the perspective of the history of thought. Hence this thesis takes its inspiration from the work of Michel Foucault and some of his followers---in particular Jonathan Crary and Geoffrey Batchen. The result of this radical shift from the technical to the intellectual environment allows the history of photography to transcend the narrow confines of technology and formal appearances. From a Foucauldian perspective I argue that photography was invented as a response to the epistemic instability experienced during the transition from the Enlightenment to Modernity.

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Arts in Photography, Durban University of Technology, 2017. / This research deals with both the cultural and technical aspects of the use of controlled shadow in child portraiture. This study was contextualised by setting it in a theoretical framework of visual culture, and by exploring the connotations of shadow in western culture. The theoretical framework provided by visual culture suggested that the way in which shadow is interpreted is dependent on the context in which it is set, and, in the context of child portraiture in particular, shadow tends to be avoided in commercial shoots. As the commercial viability of photography depends on the public being comfortable with the images produced, child photographs are usually staged or touched up to ensure that no sinister or foreboding connotations might be conveyed by shadow. While the use of harsh shadow is generally not aesthetically pleasing, and obscures the very lineaments which personalise and animate images, it was the contention of this study that use of controlled shadow might add depth and character to portraiture, and has the potential to create aesthetically pleasing effects in child photography. The empirical work explored both the cultural and technical aspects of photography. The cultural aspects, relating to the potentially undesirable aspects of photography, were explored in questionnaires and surveys carried out with groups of practising professional photographers and parents of young children. The technical aspects were explored by developing a technique for achieving pleasing aesthetic effects in child portraiture by use of controlled shadow, using the soft shadows cast by natural objects or those associated with play. The results suggest that photographers would be willing to use a technique such as that developed, provided that the results were acceptable to their clients, and thus commercially viable; the parent responses suggest that clients would find child portraits with controlled shadow aesthetically pleasing. / M

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Much like a photograph, a casts creates a replica of its referent, thereby immobilising the subject in time. While the subject continues in time and hence ages and inevitably dies the replica does not. With this basic notion of fixing a subject, I have built an argument to contextualise my sculptures, which are made using casts of elderly people. In this discussion I have looked at my works through the ideas of different theorists. The main theorist I have cited is Roland Barthes, specifically with regards to his notion of the photograph as discussed in his book Camera Lucida. I have also referenced three particular artists: Rachel Whiteread, Diane Arbus and Churchill Madikida, as I have found each of their works relate to my work in various ways, creating a different reading from each viewpoint.

With this dissertation I propose to investigate critical theories dealing with memory and its role in photography. The function of memory is a well discussed and analysed topic within the ambit of historical research. Drawing from theoretical texts by critical theorists, namely, Roland Barthes, Annette Kuhn and Marianne Hirsch, I will critically address the function of memory in the understanding of photography; particularly how photographs have the ability to construct our identity in terms of history and narrative. I will study the content of memory in relation to visual images, focusing on what is remembered, what is suppressed, and finally, what is transformed when viewing an image. By doing so, I will consider whether or not still photographs have the ability to construct the past in a narrative form that is intrinsic to its medium. This consideration will be undertaken with specific reference to the works of contemporary South African artist Lien Botha. Special attention will be directed to her series of work entitled Amendment (2006), a series which permits me in turn, to deal with issues pertaining to memory and “visual narrative” which I have explored in my own professional art practice namely, Memory Boxes, Back Stories, Faces of You and Me, Memories Re-layered and Ghostly Remnants.

The twofold purpose of this study was to ground a model of Lens Meaning in the literature of the Fine Arts and Social Sciences and to use that term as a referent in evaluating three Media Studies curricula. Lens Meaning is a term derived from a variety of sources, particularly Peirce (1955), whose semiotic theory described three systems of signs used as terms on one axis of a matrix or model by which Lens Meaning can be described. These terms are: "index", "icon", and "symbol". DeLauretis' (1984) expanded understanding of another system of signs described by Peirce, interpretants, is the foundation for the three terms on the other axis of the matrix. Those terms, which describe interpretation or response, are: "emotional", "energetic", and "habit changing". These, and other terms identified in the literature, provided a conceptual model that might be applied to the analysis and evaluation of programs of Media Studies, and similar documents. Three Media Studies programs were selected for study: from Western Australia, Ontario, and Scotland. Application of the model permitted conclusions to be drawn on the extent to which current issues of an ideological and sociopolitical nature were addressed by these programs. It was concluded that the model achieved the purposes required of it and that it may be of further utility for educators. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This thesis argues that photographs enhance the repertoire of seeing the way eyeglasses, microscopes and telescopes do. This kinship is based on these devices sharing a feature called transparency. Transparent devices facilitate visual information about objects without interrupting the causal link between the object and our eyes, and do so by maintaining a belief independent and similarity preserving counterfactual dependence on that object. Handmade pictures also offer visual information about objects, but because handmade pictures depend on the perceptual experiences of their makers, they interrupt the causal link between the object represented and our eyes. Consider how a drawing can represent the misperceptions and hallucinations of its illustrator, but in contrast, photographs do not reproduce the contents of hallucinations or misperceptions had by their photographers. I use transparency to map the epistemic province of photographs, arguing that photographs are not just ontologically similar to microscopes and telescopes, but also epistemically akin to them, –perhaps even more than they are like other picture types. This is illustrated by two further comparisons. The first is technological: while cameras define the information scope of photographs, handmade pictures are not subject to pre-sets that strictly limit their representational scope in the same way. The second comparison shows how photographs and handmade pictures are subject to different sceptical hypotheses: handmade pictures are susceptible to scepticism about their illustrator, –i.e., as we might question the credibility of someone giving testimony– but photographs are not beholden to scepticism about their photographer. I conclude with a proposal on the epistemology of photography, where contrary to the character of other picture types, photographs provide genuine perceptual knowledge about objects.

Se o que existiu e foi fotografado na paisagem urbana possibilitou a incorporação do que se tornou visível nos artefatos nominados Documentos poéticos, no acervo artístico e no projeto curatorial de exposições do Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli (2011-2014), como O Cânone pobre: uma arqueologia da precariedade na arte; em contraste, propiciou a organização dos Relatórios imaginais correspondentes à Coleção Objetos de pesquisa em artes plásticas, os quais existem, foram fotografados durante o experimento e, pelo viés histórico, incorporados ao acervo do Museu Paranaense e socializados no Pergamum (2012- 2014). Esse princípio metodológico para estruturar a investigação sobre o gesto fotográfico como ato criativo em espaços transitórios, das ações museológicas praticadas por seres humanos em relação com os objetos circundantes, assegurou inteligentes graus de interação além da época de nossa cidade Curitiba, ao sul do Brasil. Neste duradouro work in progress, fragmentário, porque é aberto e comunicável como deve ser seu destino, o objetivo acentuado é o de dizer e mostrar algo que se veja da entropia e da ruína na forma de arte em processo observado desde o início. As noções de ‘transitoriedade’, encontrada na Origem do drama barroco alemão; do ‘progresso’ e da ‘atualização’, no Livro de los pasajes, em que estão dispostos, respectivamente, os papéis dos “rollos” D [El tedio, eterno retorno] e N [Teoría del conocimiento, teoría del progreso], obras de Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), são colocadas em movimento dialético com a ‘fenomenologia’ e a ‘comunicação’, de Vilém Flusser (1920- 1991), em Los gestos, de fotografar entre distintos de ‘buscar’ a relação concreta entre o ‘sujeito conhecedor’, o ‘objeto cognoscível’ e a adaptação entre ambos, dando sentido ao que ‘move o observador’. Para novos modos de concretizar, ver, refletir sobre a arte, a ciência, a partir da dúvida que enfrenta o informe, no presente, a noção de ‘espaço’ como resultado da ligação ação-objeto-sujeito com a totalidade, vem da obra A natureza do espaço: técnica e tempo, razão e emoção, de Milton Santos (1926-2001). Na direção do recorte com resultados, foram incluídas as visões de mundo de artistas qual Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) e Paul Klee (1879-1940), Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) e Hannah Höch (1889-1978), da vanguarda alemã e dos contemporâneos norte-americanos Robert Smithson (1938-1973) e Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), aptos a recordar o que pensavam fazer. / If what existed and was photographed in the urban landscape has allowed the incorporation of what has become visible in the artifacts named Poetic documents, in the art collection and in the curatorial of exhibitions of Art Museum Ado Malagoli at Rio Grande do Sul (2011-2014), as The poor canon: the precariousness of archeology in fine arts; in contrast, this has led to the organization of Imaginal reports corresponding to the Collection Objects for research in Fine Arts, which exist, were photographed during the experiment, and for their historical bias, were incorporated in the collection of the Paranaense Museum as well as socialized in the Pergamum (2012-2014). This methodological principle of structuring research on the photographic gesture as a creative act in transitional spaces, of the museum actions taken by human beings in relation to surrounding objects, has assured intelligent degrees of interaction beyond the era of our city Curitiba, in the south of Brazil. In this long lasting work in progress, fragmentary, because it is open and communicable as its destination should be, the sharp goal is to show and tell something where entropy and ruin may be seen in the form of art in the observed process from the start. The notions of ‘transience’, found in the book Origin of the german baroque drama; of ‘progress’ and ‘updating’, in the Book of passages, in which are displayed, respectively, the roles of “rolls” D [Boredom, the eternal return] e N [Theory of knowledge, theory of progress], both writings by Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), are placed in dialectical movement with the ‘phenomenology’ and ‘communication’, by Vilém Flusser (1920-1991), in The Gestures, of photographing between differences of ‘searching for’ the concrete relationship between the ‘knowledgeable subject’, the ‘knowable object’ and adaptation between them, giving meaning to what ‘moves the observer’. For new ways of realizing, seeing, reflecting on the art, science, staring from doubt that emerges from the report, at present, the notion of ‘space’ as a result of the binding relationship action-object- subject with totality, comes from the work The nature of space: technique and time, reason and emotion, by Milton Santos (1926- 001). In the direction of the clipping with results, were included worldviews of artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Paul Klee (1879- 1940), Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) and Hannah Höch (1889-1978), of the German avant- garde and of the contemporary Americans Robert Smithson (1938-1973) and Gordon Matta- Clark (1943-1978), all able to remember what they thought to do.