Module 1 / Topic 10: Photography, Power & Others

Module 1 / Topic 10: Photography, Power & Others

The unspoken power in an image is often palpable without context or words

It is ironic that I have found myself in a 180-degree shift of topics and landed from my past work in the ice, to a current hotbed of political, legal and ecological wrangling in the Southern Vancouver Island Rainforest. I arrived in Victoria, BC, quite unexpectedly needing to be here for the remainder of my youngest child’s school year. At the same time I was trying to figure out how I was going to possibly document anything to do with ice for my next project due imminently – The Illustrated Proposal. Literally within 24 hours of my arrival, I discovered that the Southern Vancouver Island Rainforest and its old growth trees are at risk of being clear cut logged and was currently an active protest zone with a legal injunction application pending a Supreme Court decision. Additionally, I learnt the gravity of the situation is that of the 2.7% of old growth forest remaining in BC (the 97.3% has already been logged),  less than 1% of it remains on Vancouver Island and this area is on unceded First Nations Land that has been illegally appropriated by the government. This week’s topic is the issue of photography, power & others.

Old Growth Forest near Eden Grove, Southern Vancouver Island Rainforest

1000 Year Old Tree Stumps in Clear Cut

This topic brought together all of my academic studies from Political Science, to Law and finally Photography allowing me to cover something happening in this unfortunate historic moment. My work as an environmental photographer has always been initiated by my desire to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, and Berger who states ‘We never look at just one thing, we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves’ poignantly sums this up. (Berger, 1972:9 Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin)

Fairy Creek Forest Protectors at their Headquarters nine months into the stand off

In looking at the issues of power, photography and others, it is essential to address ethical issues that explore the relationships between the author, the subject and the audience.  In photographing the rainforest in the midst of a conflict with loggers, politicians, the local First Nations community and environmentalists, the issue becomes a quagmire of ethics relating to how the images are being used, obtaining consent from the vulnerable and minors, and the perspective of the story being told. I, the author, ultimately want to photograph the forest that is at risk of being logged, and to capture areas that have been already logged. But in telling the story of the forest, it is essential for me to capture what is currently happening in the name of its protection and that is the very politically charged situation between the above groups who are the subjects, and convey with accuracy the reality of current events so its veracity can be authenticated. 

Forest Protectors at Caycuse

There were people on the blockades who did not want to be identified therefore I could not photograph them. As well, there was some infrastructure built that the environmentalists did not want the public to be aware of as it was within their arsenal of strategies in dealing with the police in the event the time came to forcibly remove them. Exploring the relationship between each corner of the ‘Author, Subject, Audience Triangle’, it is essential that not too much power be weighted in one quadrant to the exclusion of the others. As Sontag states in her book On Photography,

 ‘To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they can never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.’ (Sontag, 1979:14)

The first arrests of peaceful forest protectors

While it is true that there is an element of power one wields behind the lens in terms of the subject in focus, once the photo enters the public domain, it is the audience who yields the power in its interpretation. Additionally, in the situation of my photographing the environmentalists on the blockades, there was most definitely a feeling that they were asserting their power in protecting the old growth forests, and even to the point of being arresting in making their positions known.  But the arrival of the police changed the dynamics of the power and reverted to the colonialist paradigm shift in Canada’s historic abuse of power over indigenous groups and the land.

78 year old grandmother being arrested

I was photographing in the forest in two capacities, one as a photojournalist for a magazine and secondly, as an MA student creating content for my project. Each reason created different objectives and the resulting photographs are different. But each task is imprinted with my photographic DNA, my own agenda and style regardless of how objective I am attempting to be. But at the root of my practice, whether it is for my own creative objectives or for photojournalism purposes, the issue of ethics and power is always one I try to balance and I hope that my work conveys this.

Police assessing how to remove blockade

Module 1 / Topic 9: Nature & Culture

What is nature? The dictionary definition of nature is ‘the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations’.

And culture?  The dictionary definition is two-fold:

1.    the  arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.

2.    . the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture)

The desire to preserve nature is as old as civilization and can be observed by studying some of Western Civilization’s oldest cultures, as seen in the literature from the Homeric hymns of Ancient Greece:

“firs or towering oaks grow upon the fruitful earth
beautiful, flourishing on the lofty mountains.
They stand high, and people call them
sacred groves of the immortals,
and mortals do not cut them down at all with an axe.”

(https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/history-behind-canadas-national-parks

There was a period as seen in Classicism, where mankind was viewed as superior to nature and could exert its power over it, but this was short lived with the rise of Romanticism towards the end of the 18th Century.  

Romanticists such as Henry David Thoreau believed that humans were meant to live in the world of nature, rather than the urban world and he sought isolation and nearness to nature. In his writings, Thoreau suggests that all living things have rights that humans should recognize, implying that we have a responsibility to respect and care for nature rather than destroying it. Thoreau proclaims, “Every creature is better alive than dead, men, moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it will rather preserve its life than destroy it”. (Neimark, Peninah, and Peter Rhoades Mott. 1999. TheEnvironmental Debate: A Documentary History. Westport: Greenwood Press, p94).

The connection between Romanticism and nature was largely formed with this core concept that man's true self can be found in the wilderness, rather than in the city. Both artists and philosophers of the Romantic period emphasized the glory and beauty of nature, and the power of the natural world. (https://thewandererliteraryjournal.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/thoreau-on-nature-in-walden).

Henry David Thoreau is considered by many to be the environmental father of the green movement. As teacher, scientist, historian, student, author, and naturalist, Thoreau has made a number of contributions to the ecological movement, his most significant including his own personal published reflections on conservation and his search for the meaning of life through the relationship he had with nature. (https://thewandererliteraryjournal.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/thoreau-on-nature-in-walden/

Mueller, Dawna. 2017. Altmann

Photography’s relationship with nature can be seen from its early days of inception. Both William Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre were in a race to create the first photographic prototype, and while they were competitors in business they both shared a vision of a new image making process as one that originates in and takes form through nature itself. (Keenan, Hagi. 2020. California. Stanford University Press, p15). In fact, Daguerre had prepared a promotional prospectus for his invention in 1938, a year before he introduced the Daguerreotype, as ‘a discovery that consists of the spontaneous reproduction of the images of nature received in the camera obscura….The Daguerreotype is not a tool for drawing nature; it is a chemical and physical process that gives the facility to reproduce herself. (Daguerre, Louis Jacques. 1838. Daguerreotype: Prospectus, Second Half of 1838, in First Exposures Writings from the Beginning of Photography. 2017. Siegel, Steffen. Los Angeles. Getty Publications. Pgs 34-37).

These sentiments seemed to be a central theme of Talbots work as well which appears in the first photography book he published called ‘The Pencil of Nature’ in 1884. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pencil_of_Nature)

Photography’s historical roots in nature perpetuate to this day as seen in the plethora of both hobby and professional photographers photographing nature in one form or another. 

How we view nature today in the 21 Century varies from culture to culture and also within the spheres of any give culture; one’s perspective is based on the subjectivity of one’s own lens. In a semiotic analysis, it is through the plurality of discourses that we use. When a culture has hardly any food to feed its population, caring for nature and land conservation will undoubtedly be low on its list of priorities. Whereas, developed nations with large tracks of unpopulated nature are seemingly more interested in protecting these lands for future generations. 

Mueller, Dawna. 2017. Svalbard

Nature, historically has experienced the dichotomy of perspectives, on the one hand viewed as a place for human consumption, using the land and its treasures as the bounty for earthly pleasures, sustenance and shelter. Both the land and oceans have been at the mercy of the pillage. And in contrast, it is seen as a refuge in need of protection as seen in the advent of national park protections developed in the 20th century. (https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/history-behind-canadas-national-parks)

I share Thoreau sentiments that we have a right to respect nature and not destroy it. And that includes all living things that reside in nature whether it is land or marine.  

Mueller, Dawna. 2018. Svalbard

The advent of Industrialization has seen an increase in practices that are at odds with the preservation of nature. Depicting the industrial sublime has become a focus for Edward Burtynsky whose large-scale photographs of industry and the scars that remain combine issues of ecology and the role of visual media. His work focuses on resource extraction and the role of the commodity in the way this alters our landscape. He doesn’t photograph the natural disasters that are happening in nature, rather, he photographs what is referred to as the ‘slow violence’ perpetrated on eco-stystems. (Shuster, Joshua. 2013. Between Manufacturing and Landscapes: Edward Burtynsky and the Photography of Ecology. Photography & Culture Vol 6, Issue 2. Pgs 194-196). Burtynsky’s work is the antithesis of the beautiful or the picturesque and entrenched firmly in the sublime, showing nature in a state of destruction. This conceptual shift has provided viewers with perspective that allows one to be ‘pierced by the punctum’ to use Barthes vernacular.  (Barthes, Roland. 1982. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. London: Jonathan Capes).

https://www.cultframe.com/wp-content/uploads/edward_burtynsky-alberta_oil_sands-1.jpg

Nature is both resilient and fragile, with an ability to flourish in homeostasis and a resounding ability to rebound in the face of adversity. Nature provides humanity with the opportunity for life and without it we cease to exist. From the oxygen provided from the forests to the plant life that nourishes our bodies, nature is our lifeblood to living. 

This historical overview is important for my practice because I have chosen to focus on landscape photography as my genre and desire to focus on an aspect of nature that is meaningful to me. I am drawn to the confluence of humans and nature , and I am moved by the adverse affects that humanity has impacted on the natural world and the physical manifestations that result from this.  My practice requires me to be on location where ‘place’ features in my work and the visual is the narrative. I am trying to find ways to deepen the narrative and move past the myopic pictorialistic way of capturing the landscape. I want to convey through the visual narrative without an overt aestheticization of the subject. I want my images to create a dialogue, but I realize that once it leaves my hands, the image is firmly in the domain of the viewer.  I am cognizant of the fact that while the intended studium is observed, the punctum’s effect is no longer in my control. (Barthes, Roland. 1982. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. London: Jonathan Capes). 

Mueller, Dawna. 2018. Svalbard

While it is true as Susan Sontag writes, ‘photos furnish evidence’ she also suggests that ‘taking photographs has set up a chronic voyeuristic relation to the world which levels the meaning of all events. (Sontag, Susan. 1978. On Photography. London. Allen Lane. P4,10). With that in mind, I continue to find ways to create and hope that some meaning from my work is derived. As David Bate concludes, ‘Landscape is not all things to all people, but a highly differentiated discourse on representing space.’ (Bate, David. 2009. Photography: The Key Concepts. UK. MPG Books Group)

Module 1 / Topic 4: Authorship & Collaboration

Photography is often considered a solitary endeavor, one that is experienced alone. But this is seldom the case. We are often engaging in collaborations whether we are aware of it or not. 

In their article 'Photography Consists on Collaboration', Meiselas, Edwald and Azoulay, make the assumption that collaboration is the basis of the event of photography. They suggest that collaboration is its 'degree zero', and that 'photography always involves an encounter between several protagonists in which the photographer cannot claim an a priori monopoly on knowledge, authorship, ownership, and rights'. (Meiselas, Susan, Edwald, W. and Azoulay, A. 2016. 'Photography Consists on Collaboration'. Camera Obscura; Duke University Press) 

This week's exercise was a collaboration in photography where we were all complicit in the collaboration. Collaboration can nevertheless exist on many levels. Working with archives, or materials created in the past is also a form of collaboration. Additionally, collaboration enhances the creative process and can offer new perspectives and interpretations. The semiotics can change in a collaboration and works can be re-contextualized. The movement of works between domains brings up issues of intertexuality which can lead to questions of authorship and appropriation. 

 “The magic of photography is that it is the object which does all the work. Photographers will never admit this and will argue that all the originality lies in their inspiration and their photographic interpretation of the world.”

(Jean Baudrillard [1998] ‘For illusion is not the opposite of reality’ in CAMPANY, 2003: 238) 

Prince, Richard. Untitled (cowboy). 1989. Chromogenic print. 127 x 177.8cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sherri Levine and Richard Prince are artists who test this notion to its limits. Both artists reproduce the work of other people often without much change from the original. The question here is where is the line drawn between the unethical or illegal appropriation of another artists work? Prince has been sued on numerous occasions for copyright infringement, as have Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. (Prescott, Theodore. Issue 97. ‘Appropriation and Representation’. Image Journal. Ontario)

The issue of appropriation challenges and undermines concepts of originality and innovation. But even T.S. Eliot questioned originality in his quote from his 1921 book The Sacred Wood, where he suggests:

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling, which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something, which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.” 

Eliot, T.S. 1921. The Sacred Wood. London: Methuen

Levine, Sherrie. 1981. After Walker Evans 4. Silver Gelatin Print. 12.8 x 9.8 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Evans, Walker. 1936. Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife. Silver Gelatin Print. 20.9 x 14.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is clear that the sheer volume of images existing in today’s digital archives creates a multitude of opportunities for engaging in intertextual practices to create new bodies of work. While some of these works might be considered appropriation and plagiarism, and therefore subject to copyright infringement, the facts remain, the public domain of art continues to raise questions of originality and ownership. And artists will continue to be inspired by collaborations either in person or in historical contexts, and this inspiration might result in something looking very much like the work from which it was inspired.

Trees 1. Photo by Dawna Mueller

Our week 4 collaboration was to choose a topic, photograph it, put it together as a cohesive work and present it. I worked in a group of 6 and our chosen topic was 'Trees', firstly because even in our various degrees of Covid lockdown, we all have access to trees. But more importantly, it is because we all love trees. We have discovered that we all have relationships with the outdoors and trees, recognizing and appreciating the life and energy emanating from these majestic behemoths. Our discussion assisted us in a shared perspective of the what Barthes refers to as the ‘punctum’ – the emotional aspect. We agreed that we enjoy spending recreation time in forests, even some of us living amongst them, and that trees provide us with more than just oxygen and shelter. In mythologies, legends and novels, trees are considered representatives of life, power, wisdom and prosperity. Trees are often mythologized as elements that fuel life and existence. Trees pulse with energy that is measureable and anyone who has ever spent time in their presence undoubtedly notices feeling both energized and grounded simultaneously. This is clearly the punctum with which we created our work, and is also the domain of the viewer ultimately. 

(Barthes, Roland. 1980. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill and Wang)

Trees II. Photo by Dawna Mueller

The studium is expressed by our collective interest to photograph trees – what does this photo show us? The exercise required discussion, planning and agreement. It was very much more an exercise in collaboration than photographing a subject and what it enhanced for me was the creativity that arises from a collaborative effort. How does this shape my photographic practice? More than affecting the content, I would conclude it required a certain amount of organization to meet the deadlines and collective expectations. It required an expediency that might not have existed in a solitary project. Overall, I enjoy creative collaborations and am used to it in my photographic practice. I enjoy the exchange of ideas and sharing of creative concepts. The issues addressed in this week’s topic of authorship and collaboration raise many questions about appropriation and plagiarism and I don’t feel comfortable utilizing either in my work. I acknowledge that I am inspired by many, however, I often make concerted efforts to not go in a certain direction for fear of working too closely in the footsteps of another. The discernment between collaboration, appropriation and plagiarism is a fine one, but whereas the former can lead to a collective work with independent ideas, the later for me are essentially the same when looking at it from the perspective of copyright infringement.  

Trees III. Photo by Dawna Mueller

Module 1 / Topic 3: Reading Photographs

This week explores the idea of reading photographs. How do we decode or decipher the image and what factors influence how we interpret images both individually and collectively. 

 “Thanks to its code of connotation the reading of the photograph is thus always, historical: it depends on the reader’s ‘knowledge’ just as thought it were a matter of real language, intelligible only if one has learned the signs.” Barthes, Roland and Stephan, Heath. 1977. Image Music Text, London: Fontana

Barthes view contrasts that of Szarkowski’s structuralist analysis who suggests that images can be read almost like that of texts whereby he articulates five essential components necessary in reading a photograph: the thing itself, the frame, the detail, the time, and the vantage point. Barthes’ view is that these structuralist thoughts fail to investigate the inherent biases held by the viewer. He argues that a post-structuralist semiotic analysis is essential in the interpretation of an image. He redressed the mechanistic nature of structural analysis with a new emphasis on subjectivity, context and cultural factors. 

In a post-structural semiotic image analysis, Barthes uses both denotation and connotation simultaneously in decoding an image. The former is what we identify in an image and the latter is the ideology in the message. We use both when ‘reading’ and image. As Douglas Crimp points out, the structuralist view of Szarkowski was ultimately too reductive and ignores the plurality of discourses in which photography has participated. (Crimp, D. 1999. ‘The Museum’s Old, the Library’s New Subject’ in Evans, J. & Hall, S. (ed.) Visual Culture: The Reader. London: Sage). This plurality of discourses brings the viewer and their subjectivity into the forefront of analysis.

Svalbard, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2019

Context also plays an important role in the decoding of photographs as John A. Walker discusses in ‘The Camerawork Essays; Context and Meaning in Photography (Walker, John & Evans, Jessica. Chapter 2. ‘The Camerawork Essays, Context and Meaning in Photography. Context as a Determinant of Photographic Meaning. River). He stresses the importance of context in modulating the meaning of photography. He states that the ‘reader’ is impacted with a ‘mental context’ when viewing art and the way images are ‘read’, interpreted, evaluated, used and consumed are what has become known as a ‘reception theory’. This analysis marks a shift of emphasis from cultural production to cultural consumption, from authors to readers. (Barthes, Roland. 1968. ‘The Death of The Author. Image. Music. Text’. London: Fontana)

When photos are viewed the viewer contextualizes them. Depending on where they are viewed, a certain meaning is ascribed. Photos seen on the pages of newspapers are interpreted differently than the same photos hanging in a museum for example. Additionally, photos can be re-contexualized when they change locations. Wedding photographs in an album can be re-contexualized in a magazine advertisement. Re-contextualization of an image does not radically transform its denotation. What we are identifying in the image remains the same but the context and connotation that we ascribe to it change. 

Barthes also discusses two types of interest a viewer might have in an image: the studium and the punctum (Barthes, Roland. 1982. Camera Lucida. London: Jonathan Cape). The studium refers the viewer’s objectivity. It refers more to what the photo contains and what we read from it. Whereas the ‘punctum’ refers to the emotional impact the image has on the viewer. In this sense the punctum is very much in the viewer’s subjective domain. 

Additionally, the meaning of a photo is influenced not only by its moment of production but it is also subject to changes as the photograph changes its locations, viewing locations, circumstances and viewing public. Walker refers to this ‘spatio-temporal’ point of origin, which also is important in analyzing photos to determine their meaning. (Walker, John & Evans, Jessica. Chapter 2. ‘The Camerawork Essays, Context and Meaning in Photography. Context as a Determinant of Photographic Meaning. River). He suggests it is important to examine the life of a photo as well as its birth (Tagg, John. 1978. ‘The Currency of the Photograph’. Ed. 28. Screen Education.). To give consideration to its circulation, as it moves through time from context to context and is consumed by different groups of people. 

Svalbard, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2021

How does a post-structuralist analysis affect the way I interpret photographs, or the way my photographs are interpreted? Does a re-contextualisation of an image make a difference in the ‘studium’ and/or the ‘punctum’ for me (Barthes, R. 1982. Camera Lucida). I agree that a plurality of discourses are at play in any image analysis. For viewing with only the structuralist view espoused by Szarowski fails to take essential components of connotation and denotation into consideration. Additionally, image contextualisation, as well as any subsequent re-contextualisation from the original authorship, play an important role in an image’s interpretation. And as Barthes so poignantly noted, this is where the interpretation becomes open to infinite possibilities and once the emotional domain of the punctum is entered, the viewer is very much in charge and the final interpretation will vary from viewer to viewer, from culture to culture and even possible change over time.

It is clear that I bring my frame of reference as an educated, middle aged, white, middle class, liberal woman to the analysis. My subjective interpretation is contexualized by my experience as well as what I know about the photographer and the work being viewed. Additionally, the domain of the punctum is solely within my territory as I am the beneficiary of the immediate emotional reaction. I am fully aware that my interpretation might not be at all the emotional response that the artist was intending to illicit. And I am okay with the freedom being a viewer affords me in my analysis. And as a photographer, I am very much aware that once my images are made public, the intention in their creation might be mine alone. A semiotic analysis and deconstruction of images will change with time, but that is a small price to pay for the art of uncensored creation, for both the creator and the viewer.

Module 1 / Topic 2: Methods & Meaning

This week’s topic of Methods & Meaning takes us on a deeper journey into the creative choices we make as photographers. This section questions the strategies and methods used in making bodies of work, their dissemination and display, and how this is interpreted by viewers. We start any body of work with a concept, which begins with describing and defining the rationale; the intention or the purpose of our goal. Once the concept is clear, we then move on to the methods used.  Methods are processes within various stages of photographic practices. They are the photographer’s strategies used to employ a concept such as research, planning, capture, output and dissemination. The photographer’s methodology used is the system or applications of methods. The methodology is all things that inform that strategy.

The concept of photographing without methods or meaning is a foreign one in my work as a landscape photographer. Every photographic journey usually entails meticulous planning and execution, from analyzing the weather forecast, planning the trip and all that entails from analyzing maps, to hotel, flight and boat bookings, to organizing my equipment and clothing. These procedural functions are necessary because often my concepts are to create a body of work in a remote and distant location without access to anything. 

I think in this sense my use of the medium is not to record spontaneous brief moments in life, but rather to work in conjunction with premeditated rigor – with strict structures and restraints to the creative process. While there are certainly surprises and what I consider gifts along the way, my methodology is very much the result of all the methods going into my photographic practices, and concepts carefully planned and executed. It is clearly the opposite of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘decisive moment’, although he was also quite methodical and detailed in his approach.

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of forms which give that event its proper expression. (Cartier-Bresson, Henri. 1952.The Decisive Moment. New York, Simon & Schuster, )

There might be moments when I am in the field and a situation arises where an event happens and I have fraction of a second to capture the image, like in the case of a bird flying by, or capturing a storm, but these situations are the exception in my work. In contrast, I often find myself sitting for hours waiting for the perfect light.

Additionally, I certainly do not use a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of approach from Victor Burgin. (Burgin, Victor. 1998. Campany, p. 281, 2003). My concepts are relatively clear in that I set out to photograph a particular location, which is at imminent risk of climate change (hence my work in the Cryosphere). While it is not always possible to show aggregated effects of climate change, I can show the current state of the environment and even the astonishing but fragile beauty of it. 

An illustration of my work from initial concept, to utilizing various methods resulting in my methodology can be seen in my series Anthropocene – Vanishing Landscapes, 2018, which exhibited in Canada, 2018 before moving on to be exhibited in Switzerland, 2018/2019.  Some of the photos from this series were taken at the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland where the effects of climate change are notable in the thousands of meters of cloth covering part of the glacier’s cave, attempting to stave off the inevitable and accelerated melting. One method I use on location is to take a broader topographical perspective to allow the viewer a frame of reference as seen below in first photo, Rhone Glacier I. I then like to create more intimate portraits showing detail as seen below with in the Rhone Glacier II & III, where without the first photo, the viewer might not understand what they are looking at. It is often only with the broader topographical image combined with the closeup perspectives, that the viewer is able to reference what is taking place and thereby understand the narrative. At least this is my intention.

Rhone Glacier II, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018

What is relevant in this project is that the series illustrates the gravity of the situation. My method of editing in black and white is to remove the distraction of color, thereby allowing the interplay of light and shadows to create the intensity of form for the viewer. The use of black and white in my images facilitates my concept of capturing the gravity and urgency of the issues I focus on. 

As my work requires time, thought and reflection, it is not often I find unintended surprises.  In Topic 2 of Methods & Meaning, I am inspired to play more when I am on location. To take more chances once I feel I have captured my intended shot. I am inspired by so many of the great photographers from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, to Brassai, as well as Sara Moon, Viviane Maier and so many more. While completely different from my work, they inspire me with their complexity, the execution of their concepts and the various methods used to create their narratives. Viewing their work and others over the decades has allowed my eyes to see more discerningly, to be moved by the visual story, and to adopt photography as the language of my heart.  

Rhone Glacier III, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018

Module 1 / Topic 1: Mirrors & Windows

The metaphoric use of windows and mirrors in photography has been discussed and debated since its inception in 1938. The photographer’s selection is a fundamental part of the medium: the viewfinder representing the window and the object mirroring the subjective perspective of the photographer.

The windows and mirror analogy is succinctly stated in the Press Release from John Szarkowski’s 1978 Exhibition Mirrors and Windows:

“In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror – a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window – through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence & reality.”(1)

Intrinsic in his work is the analogy of this 2-way exchange whereby photography, and more implicitly, the viewfinder is our window, but at the same time, our perspective, mirrors that of our own inherent subjectivity.

The use of these metaphors of windows and mirrors in my own work represents both what I am framing with my own perspective, but also that of how I create narratives regarding how the environment mirrors societal behaviors.

In my own photography of landscape and environment, both analogies are very clearly at play.

Greenland, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018

I think these are essential components of a photo and inherent in one’s interpretation of it. We are all viewers looking through our own subjective lens and what we see is the reflection of our social constructs and values.

In contrast to Szarkowski’s more romantic analogy is the stark interpretation of Susan Sontag’s analysis whereby she suggests that photography is synonymous with possession, ownership and objectification.

Sontag states that:

“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and therefore, like power.”(2)

Sontag goes further to suggest that to photograph people is to violate them.

I can see how this analogy can take place, to an extent, in the world of portrait or people photography. A certain sense of voyeurism takes place where the photographer is the only one privy to what is actually captured in the viewfinder. Those being knowingly photographed often express feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable, needing the reassurances of the photographer that they indeed, look fine. This clearly creates an imbalance of power where one is assuaging the concerns of the other.

I am not sure that in my work of photographing landscapes, I experience a sense of ownership, or possession of the image. Or even if I am objectifying it. Clearly there is my subjective perspective in the framing of the composition. The window is created with all of my biases, experiences, preferences and preconceptions. Whereas, what I am photographing is a mirror of what I see, and to a larger extent, what is being reflected back by both the beauty of what I see, and also the destruction of it caused by societal behaviors. It is my intention that the photo tell its story and I often feel as thought I am merely the conduit by which it comes into existence. If there is one common denominator in all of my landscape work, is my desire to make meaning out of that which moves me.

Greenland, Photo by Dawna Mueller, 2018

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(1) Szarkowski, John (1978). Press Release for Mirrors and Windows, American Photography since 1960, July 1978, New York: MoMA

(2) Sontag, Susan. (1977) On Photography. New York: Farrar, Staus & Giroux