Graham Clarke - The Photograph

Graham Clarke - The Photograph

Graham Clarke’s ‘The Photograph’ consists of a selection of images with an insight on how do we read a photograph. There are many ways to read a photograph as everyone has a different vision and interpretation in their minds. Clarke looks into every single part of the photograph to create his own interpretation. He also believes there is six essential elements to the structure of a photograph:

1.     Size

2.     Shape

3.     The miniaturisation of a photograph consists of reality

4.     The photograph is a 2 flat- 2 dimensional

5.     As an art form, photographs traditionally eschew colour (one wonders whether this is no more than artistic snobbery, a deliberate attempt to escape the horrible thought that a photograph is indeed nothing but a pictorial representation of reality);

6.     Time - the fact that we know exactly when a photograph is taken

This photograph is Diane Arbus Identical Twins photograph which was one of Clarke’s selection of images that he analysed. As a normal viewer, I read the photograph as any normal viewer would read it, it's two identical twins standing next to each other. However, Clarke mentioned that although the photograph looks perfectly composed due to the twins, it is actually very different. Clarke stated “We need to read it as the site of a series of simultaneous complexities and ambiguities, in which is situated not so much a mirror of the world as our way with that world; what Diane Arbus called 'the endlessly seductive puzzle of sight’. “Clarke examined the photograph section by section, he also claimed that Diane Arbus wanted to play with the viewer as she placed the twins a few feet away from the wall and disrupted the composition to create a sense of unbalance for the reader. 

According to Clarke, photography is art, the mere use of words such as "portrait" and "landscape" betray the ambition of the pursuit as being more than the mere mass production of holiday snaps. Some believe that photography is too accessible meaning anyone can take an image and plausibly present it as art. Even poor pictures can be presented as "Well, I can see something in it, I defy you to as well." However, art generally does not work well as a mass pursuit; Clarke plays to this audience by his presentation of work by Arbus and Friedlander. At a most basic level, perhaps the denotative of Barthes, one could argue the Arbus "got lucky" with Identical Twins; they rather conveniently had different expressions. But we (Clarke) read much into this (Barthes' connotative): "The more we continue to look, the more the merest detail resonates as part of a larger enigmatic presence and tension as to what, exactly, we are being asked to look at." Thus Clarke enunciates a common artistic refrain, which in simple terms says that I should be able to see something in this image because it was taken by a really well-renowned photographer. He continues: "Far from identical twins these are individuals in their own right. They are, as it were, very different twins". It is worth pausing for a moment to consider the profundity of this statement. A possible retort is to say of course they are different; that's biology for you. But let us not be unfair; what Clarke implies is that Arbus has encapsulated that thought in her photograph. The thought is presented to us. Clarke has given me insight into how to read a photograph, examining every single section of the photograph is extremely important as little features can change a whole perspective and interpretation of a photograph.