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Dissertation in fulfilment of the degree of Master of Arts in Fine Arts by coursework and research report at the University of the Witwatersrand 2014 / My research intends to appropriate and recast Jacques Derrida’s ideas by seeking to interpret the written text as supplementary to photographic images. I use a close reading of Judith Coullie’s introductory text to Selves in Question: Interviews on Southern African Auto/biography (2006) to explore Santu Mofokeng’s representation of his biography and autobiography. Through selected works by Mofokeng, I highlight photographic ways and writing modes of expressing and locating his voice, drawing on the artist’s own subjective reality, memory and metaphor. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in conjunction with the introductory text to Selves in Question serve to provide much historical evidence and contexts to the complexities of writing a personal narrative in an exploration of freedom within the confines of oppression. I nevertheless acknowledge that some narratives are heavily dependent on a collaborative relationship. The negotiated different moments and perspectives that make up various presented narratives are born from spaces and places that act as intersections within the private and public in a constant state of stasis and movement..

This paper presents findings of an exploratory study to evaluate the impact of humanitarian photography on the generation of sympathy and donation behavior. Considering the large amount of money spent each year by charity organizations on marketing strategies, it seems crucial to shed light on the persuasive impact of images in this context. The overarching purpose of this study was to discern what impact, if any, a number of features in a photograph have on sympathetic reactions. Specifically the author examined facial expressions (sad vs. happy), eye contact vs. no eye contact and total number of subjects portrayed. Findings supported the hypothesis that sad expressions in photos would have greater sympathetic responses than happy expressions. The author hypothesized that direct eye contact would be more persuasive than indirect eye contact, but the data supported the inverse result: indirect eye contact elicited more sympathy than direct gaze. The third hypothesis, that single subject images would be more persuasive than multiple subjects, was not supported. The author concluded that results draw attention to sympathy-generating attributes of charity appeals that have been overlooked.

This hermeneutic inquiry into the significance of family photographs in our personal and public lives explores the relationship between the subject, the photographer and the viewer. The discussion uses the photgraphic oeuvres of the author's paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother as the basis of the exploration. Themes which appear include the following: the represented and projected images of a family within family photos; the significance of gender in the making of snapshots; and, the influence of history and religion upon families. The discussion also includes the relationship between art and photography, art photography and the snapshot genre, the role of women within photography and snapshot photography as a method of visual narrative. The author delves into hermeneutics as an interpretative framework when viewing family photos. Semiotics, and Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida (1981) inform the discussion in addition to Jung's matriarchal consciousness as two alternative frameworks for interpreting family photographs. The study indicates that family photographs are visual artifacts which document and authenticate the lived experiences of the photographer and that they serve as a visual form of life writing. Data from the photographic industry indicates the heavy involvment of women in family photographs which the study links to the marginalised role of the genre. To interpret the significance of the ubiquitous family snapshot involves the hermeneutic circle as the "text" of the photograph involves the inter-textuality of other previously encountered texts. / xvii, 199 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

For 150 years, chemical photography had a privileged status as a truthful means of representation. The emerging technology of digital imaging is challenging this unique position. This paper proposes to examine the status of the photographic image in the digital age, as well as the debate surrounding the new technology and its implications. Chapter one begins with a brief technical history of the medium and establishes the construction behind the myth of photographic truth. Chapter two debunks the myth of photographic image's objectivity. Chapter three describes the specifities of digital imaging technology and discusses the potential problems and consequences of the invasion of digitally enhanced images in the media, as well as possible solutions. Finally, the fourth chapter considers the use of digital imaging in women's magazines and examines what such a use says about our society's values. By considering the issue of photo-manipulation, one can understand that manipulation expresses the human will to create a world of simulation.

The dissertation examines how image-making, a common pastime, was made common. It investigates the ways in which the production and consumption of images in the context of the North American family contributed to the development of a distinctly domestic and privatized visual culture, and the transformation of the home into a site for privatized spectatorship. / Four cultural forms (No. 1 Kodak, Box Brownie, Cine Kodak and Cine Kodak 8) are specified in this development, all pioneered by the Eastman Kodak Company. The dissertation traces Eastman Kodak's direct involvement in the popularization of image practices. It analyzes strategies used by them to make this possible, namely an appeal to the becoming lifestyles of the bourgeois and middle-classes. / The analysis links the popularization of image-making and consuming practices to other popular amusements (i.e. cycling, cinema-going) to work against an artifact-centred analysis. Issues of gender and generation are critically evaluated as concepts used to instill image-making as a popular, family practice. Shifts in modern temporal and spatial experience, as well as mobility are also explored in relation to popular image-making.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fashion, Durban Institute of Technology, 2006. / This dissertation questions and expands currently held notions of traditional fashion identities in South African fashion photography. The impetus for this study stems from observations of a relatively low level of political engagement in local fashion photography as compared to other areas of art and design which seem very enunciative of a politics of identity. Investigation of identity politics in South African fashion photography was informed by a staged investigation. Firstly, accounts of a literature review of fashion theory and key theories of identity allow entrenched constructions of fashion representations to be seen as restrictively politicised. Primary investigation of expert fashion views followed. The concepts of hybridity and fluidity in theories of identity were central to the discovery of alternative politicised fashion identities / M

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.

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