Victor Burgin, ‘Looking at Photographs’ (Ch.6) in Thinking Photography, 1982.
G.Branston & R.Stafford, ‘Approaching Media Texts’ (Ch.1) in The Media Student’s Book. London: Routledge, 2010.
- summary
- evaluation
- relevance
arguments
Victor Burgin’s take on the role of the photograph urges us to look beyond it’s conventional function to “sell, inform, record, delight” and to look for their deeper meaning, something we can easily neglect to do as we are consistently presented with visual information in abundance.
Further Burgin presents that the photograph has formed apart of our formal and informal communication systems, particulary with the development of semiotic readings leaving the photograph to be deconstructed of its “codes”.
The second reading this week provides provision on how we might go about analysing the nature and construction of the media. Under a semiotic approach, the perspective that ‘texts’ are made with embedded codes is taken.