After the invention of photography, modern theoreticians were hopeful that photographys faithfulness to nature would resolve painterly deficiencies by providing a more recognizable and convincing reproduction. Paradoxically, the advent of photography did not improve upon paintings failures, but exhibited an inherent problem. In particular, aspects of temporality hindered photographys ability to reproduce a convincing likeness. Concerning this issue, Gombrich opines that it could be [] true to say that we never see [in reality] what the instantaneous photograph reveals, for we gather up successions of movements, and never see static configurations as such.1 Because the constant motion of the eyes as well as the ephemeral nature of existence limits perception, I am studying the techniques used to convey aspects of likeness in the celebrity photo-portraits by Henri Cartier-Bresson. To establish what stylistic choices contribute to a recognizable portrait, I will analyze Bressons photographical methods which he delineated in The Decisive Moment.
Bressons concept of the decisive moment, far from falling within modernist accounts of photographys medium specificity, actually traces back to a much older discussion, one concerned with unearthing relations between photographs and paintings. As examples of this discussion, I look to ideas expressed by late nineteenth-century photographer-scientist Francis Galton and police officer Alphonse Bertillon. These theorists ascertained that photographs are not representative of a sum-total or synthetic image which humans perceive, but are indicative of an imperceptible instant. While Bressons conception of photographic likeness relates to ideas espoused by Francis Galton, I also prove that Bressons work is distinct from Galtons as it relates to human typicality. Whereas Galtons ideas concerning likeness relate to a need to arrive at ideal types, a comparison of Bressons work with broader developments in the history of the concept of objectivity and image making reveals the ways in which Bressons conception of typicality is distinct from that of Galton.
1 Ernst Hans Gombrich, The Image and the Eye: Further studies in the psychology of pictorial representation. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982, p. 50.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04202011-155441 |
| Date | 05 May 2011 |
| Creators | Cooperstein, Shana |
| Contributors | Josh Ellenbogen, Barbara McCloskey, Kirk Savage, Elaine King |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04202011-155441/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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