Viewpoints and Points of View
Point
of view is sometimes used interchangeably with viewpoint and when used
in conjunction with Photography they can both have a double meanings. They
refer to the physical or mental position from which something or someone is observed. For instance: a person's particular attitude or way of considering a matter, ones position to the story being told and/or where one stands in relation to that.
All the images in this post are the images chosen by the students to be use in their Video.
For one of my Visual Communication 1 lessons (sometime in May)_ I asked the
first years to get into groups of three to record a video about a
conversation they 'will have' on a Photograph to express their
viewpoints about the photograph in conjunction with a set of questions provided. This was a exercise in 'visual literacy'.
Visual Literacy according to Bramford can be described
as:
...making meaning from images where the reader uses the critical skills of
exploration, critique and reflection to interpret images from past and present
context where and when the image was created and existed. Meanings are formed
by seeing and feeling combined with universal, cultural and social conventions. It is important for
Photographers to be visually literate and produce images that effectively
communicate ‘messages’ to an audience. To
produce images one must also learn to ‘read’ and ‘interpret’ images from other
producers, whereby one discusses the image’s purpose, audience and ownership.
REFERENCE: Bamford, A. 1992. The
Visual Literacy White Paper. Adobe Systems_ONLINE http://www.adobe.com/education/resources/k12/whitepapers/ accessed on
25/05/201
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BACKGROUND:
The choice of the photograph to talk about
'happened' through conversation and the viewing of 15
photographs that were collectively gathered and shared amongst the group. Each student sourced 5 images individually
from 1x.com. Showed these to the group and then put
forward their favorite image for selection. From 3 the group made a
final selection of 1 to be used as a video teaching aid. As a class we decided
on the marking criteria for the video presentation (it's length, degrees of
professionalism and types of devices we could use to video record) based on a set of questions
which were resourced from "the visual literacy whitepaper" (see above). These ?'s were used as guidelines or conversational points to help 'unpack' the possible dialogue in the image. The questions were:
- Who created the image?
- Describe why you make the assumptions about who the photographer is?
- At what point of history and in what context was the image created?
- Who do you think commissioned the image?
- For what purpose do you think the image was created?
- Why do you say this?
- In what context is the image being seen? Who is the intended audience of the image?
- In what other forms of media can the image be seen?
- What has been omitted or possibly altered in the photograph. Consider the frame imposed by the viewfinder. List these.
- What has been included in the image?
- What does the image say about our history?
- What does the image communicate about our individual or national identity?
- What does the image say about society/an event?
- What aspects of a 'culture' are communicated in the image?
The initial purpose of making these videos was to function as teaching aids to facilitate visual literacy and was to be shared amongst peers on YouTube to make/create dialogue. However the bad sound, from the recording devices (which range from Photobooth, cell phone to DSLR Cameras) makes these videos redundant as aids but still fun to watch ...and the class insisted I post them on YouTube_ so much so for lecturer "authority"!
•
To watch them on YouTube (TaP 1-7) click on the link below
... in the meantime... whilst it's loading
Watch this video to get a look at the 'behind the scene' preparation.
EALWYLOL
enjoy and learn whilst you laugh out loud
you know how I love acronyms
☕
