The course notes ask ‘What photographs are not used as a means of expression or communication?’. Having given this some thought I am of the opinion that all photographs communicate something. They may not have multiple layers of meaning or expression but they all communicate something.
The requirement of a passport photograph is for it to be expressionless. Its purpose is a means of communicating an identity in the form of a pictorial likeness.
Photographs recording a collection of objects are communicating ownership, an itinerary of possessions and also a likeness.
A scanned document is the transformation of a paper document to an electronic version. The need to convert it allows it to be communicated efficiently to a large number of recipients.
Maybe the question was specific to art photography. If so then context plays a big part in what on the surface may be mundane and emotionless. The very act of picking up a device to capture the pictorial likeness of something raises the question of ‘why?’.
If the photograph communicates what the photographer wanted to then it has been successful. This will be one of the main criticisms of student assignments. There is always subjectivity at play but a submission can be judged against the students intention. Maybe this is why art photographers do not want to give too much away about their intentions. We as viewers are left to read the images and decide whether it means anything to us.
In fact I do know of photographs that are expressionless and fail to communicate as I am still smarting from the assessors describing my EYV submission images ‘meaningless at times‘. I knew what the idea was but at times I failed to produce images that communicated that idea. I am beginning to see that now and the difference is the amount of time and thought I put into a series of images. Although you may not realise it that process comes through in the final images.
Martyn Rainbird 