Critical and contextual analysis

Fine Art: Google's meaning~ Fine art photography is photography created in accordance with the vision of the artist as photographer.
My meaning: a photographers way of manipulating an image to make it "surreal" and making it very intriguing- for example making images with a portrait overlapping a landscape image.
It is a visual art whose products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic or intellectual content.

connotation- an implied meaning
denotation- the literal meaning of a photograph

Bathes theory-
Studium- the broad sense of the image, what gives the intentions. What makes it attractive

Punctum- a very small detail off from everything else you would except, making the viewer see the photographer in a different way. the main thing that makes the photo. The out of place element.

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/grossman.html

Mendel Grossman took a series of images called “The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto” through the years of 1941-44, showing this series was across the 2^nd World War- thus giving it the holocaust sense of context. Grossman himself was a Jewish photographer which shows he was trying to capture the truth about this point in time through the eyes of the Jewish people forced to live in the ghetto rather than someone looking in from the outside world. As Grossman is Jewish himself is quite important with the images, which he shot because they show fact rather than staged shots- implying the documentary aspect of this work. Within the image given to us, we are faced with the denotation of two children, one being shown in ”slum-like” clothing and the other in a “high-powered” security uniform. This then leads onto the connotation of these children being born into this hierarchal society and them believing this is the correct way of how they should be treated. At first the audience may be led to believe one of these children may be German- thus explaining the suit outfit, then the other child being Jewish as he is the one wearing the plain grey outfit, associated with these children in the slums. However after looking at the context we are led to believe these children are both Jewish. This shows the contextual analysis- we found out from the linked website on this blog post, Grossman directed his lens at different aspects of the ghetto, including the “soup kitchen” and in this case at children playing on the streets. As Grossman suggests it is children playing, it implies a dark humour because they are playing innocently, however they are acting out things that are happening at this point in time, more than likely happening to the people they know and love. The reason this is known as dark humour is not because it is meant to be funny but because the photographer has captured this iconic moment of children playing, thinking this is normal; As we are looking back at it, we can see that it is not.  Furthermore, as this was taken between the years of 1941-44, it shows it was taken during a time where there was a great stigma towards the Jewish population: the holocaust. This is an important contextual analysis fact because it shows how these two children who are playing, who live together in a slum, are trying to act out the terrors happening, yet they are shown to be smiling, suggesting as they are quite young they do not quite understand what the men in those suits are really doing.

Another aspect of this image that is important is the punctum(s); one of which being the baton the child in the suit is holding against the other (denotation). This shows a connotation that it is being used to show how the child in uniform in this instant has more power over the boy as he is holding a baton that is meant to be used a form of punishment. Another punctum is the badge on the boys suit. Without this badge this boy may not appear to have as much power as he appears to have with the badge, this is because it almost as put a label on him- because of this badge it means to gives him the right to behave so badly to the Jewish population.

How has your research informed your understanding of life in the Jewish Ghetto?

Its shown me how within the Jewish Ghettos there were more hierarchies because they were told to “police themselves”. This links in with the image we were given because some may believe the punctum of the badge on the young boys arm was German- because we know what happened to Jewish people by the Germans, however it is actually a badge of the police who were Jewish themselves. This has helped inform me how it wasn’t just the “Nazis” controlling the Jewish people, but also it was those given a little power within the Ghettos. Even though some had power, they were still treated as everyone else who were Jewish.

How does your research help you in recognizing photography as a documentary tool?

This piece of research has helped shown me that documentary photography can be really useful in showing the “real-life” and truth of what has happened in an event.