archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Jordan Mintz

Two introductory chapters have been used to give the necessary background to the main subject-matter of the thesis. The first of these chronologizes the significant steps in the development of aerial photographic interpretation from the first recorded aerial photograph to the present day respected position of the art in both military and civilian professional circles. The second introductory chapter deals with the fundamental principles involved in airphoto interpretation and of their specific application to soil engineering mapping for road projects in Southern Africa. This is followed by the major theme of the thesis, which concerns the direct location by aerial photographic interpretation of the various classes of material used in the construction of a modern day road. Although aerial photographs have been employed in recent years for direct interpretation and interpolation of certain specific road building materials, their use in this manner has been limited to a few special cases. This thesis sets out to show that under certain conditions, which pertain in many regions of the world, airphoto interpretation can be used for the direct location of 1materials possessing particular engineering characteristics. Further, it sets out to show, that this can be done for the full range of engineering properties required of materials for all the significant layers of construction, despite the fact that the materials involved may be of widely differing composition and geological origin. The actual interpretation is based on the fundamental recognition of the elements of form, tone, and texture making up the total photographic pattern. Similar features reflected on photographs are shown to be comprised of similar materials, not merely geologically speaking, but more especially in respect of their significant engineering characteristics; it is still further demonstrated that this is applicable even when such features are situated some considerable distance apart. Variations of notable engineering importance within one and the same geological occurrence, are also shown to be identifiable on the aerial photographs. For major road projects in areas subjected to certain environmental conditions, these possibilities form the basis of a new prospecting technique, which incorporates the full use of the science or art of interpretation. The basic concept governing the applicability of this technique and the steps necessary to ensure the development of the full potential of aerial photography in its application, are discussed and illustrated by detailed accounts of a number of specific projects. These projects incorporate both materials appraisals of wide strips of country for route location purposes and intensive prospecting along chosen routes. The techniques thus developed, constitute a new approach to materials investigations for major road projects and in this respect contribute to knowledge in this field. Finally, conclusions are drawn on the relative merits of materials investigation methods in current use in South West Africa and on how these methods affect the different organisations involved in the planning and construction of major road projects. The use made of airphoto interpretation for similar engineering works in other countries, as well as the possible future scope for the application of the particular method of materials investigation described in this thesis, are also covered.

This is a very personal body of work from a specifically feminine perspective. I have felt enormous pressure for most of my life to try to maintain what I believe to be an acceptable appearance. I have struggled with my weight and with acne for many years. As a result, I have constantly feared being photographed or being seen without my usual mask of makeup. This has caused me to feel a disjuncture between my inner self and my outward appearance. I have become acutely aware of the face as a mask that can be manipulated in many ways, and of the illusion that lies beneath appearances. As a reaction to what I perceive to be an enormous emphasis on flawless appearances and beauty, in, for example advertising, magazines and film, I have been drawn to the overlooked, the discarded and the decayed in the everyday When sourcing material for this body of work, I have wanted to explore that which I habitually overlook in my everyday life; which has become so familiar that it is rarely noticed. I have particularly wanted to examine the significance of the everyday.

Within the textual part, I was trying to describe the character of my project and explain both my working style and work essentials using particular examples. I have given a description of the initial points and the interconnection between individual parts and the base thoughts of this project.

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<p> One could amend Virginia Woolf's famous comment on the Post-Impressionist movement in art to read, "In 1819 human nature changed." The discovery of photography has had wide-ranging consequences for artists working in various media--most obviously, painting and writing. Only very recently, however, have writers, in particular, explored in any depth the relationship between the word and the photograph. This study offers a detailed examination of the ways in which four contemporary Canadian authors perceive that relationship: Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Laurence. These writers have been chosen for detailed examination because of their consistent and varied use cf photography as a metaphor and as a structural motif in their fiction.</p> <p> Chapter One of the thesis relates photography to Alice Munro's paradoxical vision of experience. Chapters Two and Three examine the relationships among photography postmodernism, historical awareness and memory in the works of Timothy Findley and Michael Ondaatje, respectively. Margaret Laurence's fiction, the subject of the final chapter, allows us to study photographic awareness and historical awareness in the context of a more traditional narrative style.</p> <p>No full-length study of photography's impact on literature exists. The individual artists, and to observe the different associations which each writer makes with photographic vision. In this way, o~e may observe the evolution of a writer's attitudes toward abstract processes of perception and knowledge, while keeping a concrete model-the photograph--as a constant touchstone and point of comparison. This movement from the concrete to the abstract is, after all, the very impulse behind fiction--to divine from the daily world what Alice Munro calls "the other side of dailiness."</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Photography, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The study explores an alternative approach to Christian wedding photography that draws on the ritualistic narrative of the wedding as “social drama” (Turner.1974:54). Wedding photographers of the past have captured and illustrated the wedding story, with key moments, in a logical order reflecting a timeline showing the day’s events. The goal of the study is to investigates beyond the identified key moments and timeline of the Christian wedding so as to create awareness and develop understanding of the ritual and its phases and in turn, use this as a source to inspire, initiate and develop a method for the capture and production of the Christian wedding narrative in a new visual way. ‘Traditional’ Christian wedding photographers, brides-to-be and grooms-to-be are exposed and influenced by wedding photography styles of the past (which depict staged, static and controlled visual moments) or visual references from glossy magazines which place emphasis on branding, fashion-styled imagery and advertising, and lead to a romanticised and glamorised vision of possibility. The full Christian wedding narrative ritual is lost in visual representations that contain only a few glamorised and romanticised moments. This dissertation argues that the emotional, atmospheric and narrative moments of transformation of the couple on the day can be captured visually. The main research question of this study asks how one can use photography to capture that visual atmosphere and emotional underpinning of the various stages of the marriage ritual so that these images can be seen as trigger mechanisms for memories of the event. The study firstly engages with the Christian wedding as a ritual. Following Turner’s (Deflem 1991:3) conceptualisation of the four phases of a ritual (breach, crisis, liminal space and reintegration) the dissertation divides the wedding into these four phases. It also argues that the post-wedding events (the reception) follow the same trajectory, and present Turner’s (1974) liminoid dynamics. Working from several transformation narratives that use this approach, critical descriptive words that capture the narrative, the emotion and the atmosphere of the transformation are collected and clustered into categories. Following this, a tentative shooting schedule is proposed for each cluster/category. A method for the analysis of the photographs emerging from the testing of each cluster’s shooting schedule is determined, using Barrett’s subdivisions (Barrett 2006:65). The framework, composed of clusters, shooting schedule and analytical frame, is then tested on random appropriate photographs. The main body of work then applies the framework to 7 Christian weddings, and examples from each ritual phase are described and analysed to determine whether the photographs can be seen to capture the narrative events, the emotions and the atmosphere of each phase. The study argues that this is an effective alternative approach to Christian wedding photography practice. The study set out to develop an understanding of ritual and its various phases filled with emotion, atmosphere and life-changing practices. The wedding ritual identified followed a similar, if not the same path, of action of a life changing event and could be linked to the ritual and its four phases as per Turner’s discoveries and methodologies. Through literature of peoples’ life-changing experiences a databank of words describing the various phases of the ritual by means of emotion, atmosphere and meaning were identified and put into clusters of similar characteristics. These clusters, totalling seven, are representative of the four phases in the ritual that were used as a brief for the researcher/photographer. Barrett’s picture categories allowed one to decipher and develop a shooting schedule using these clusters with collective themes as briefs. The shooting schedule, which was speculative in design, was a method to illustrate the descriptor visually. Barrett’s methods supported the analysis and assessment of visuals captured in the field of the study of the Christian wedding. The visuals could be linked to descriptors and clusters which, in turn, could be linked to various phases in the ritual. The shooting schedule tested developed a visual capture framework (ritualised approach) which displayed images with a complete narrative filled with emotion and meaning, of the ritual in all four phases of the Christian wedding.

"Momentarium" is a collection of poems that examines the instability of moments. By engaging with photography, the poems examine the strengths and flaws in representation. Qualified accuracy, in other words representations that exact no absolute authenticity, are paradoxically, most accurate. The original poems attempt to express both empathy an end to empathy, "I mean to give you what you cannot keep: a blue twice as true" and "I mean to give you what I cannot." The competing forces animate a contingent moment, before it becomes the past.

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