The photography have always been the method of experience including social practice and setting of proper lighting in order to receive appropriate results. However, photography like every practice is always accompanied by theory studies and writing techniques. With regard to photography as a course, the given statement is especially relevant for 3rd year students as they not only sharpen their photography skills but also gather some information from books, journals and other theoretical sources for creating special documents which provide analyzing everything what students did during the whole training. The main purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of academic knowledge documentation for 3rd year course aimed at achievement of better results in the photographic future.
First of all, while photography students are looking for information in the library, they use keywords in order to find appropriate sources and write essays or reviews based on them. As an example from personal experience , it would be valuable to mention the presentation from visual studies classes for the 1st year which inquired to find information about photographic culture in the given timeline. My team was responsible for finding sources about connection between photography and the eugenics movement where it was possible to use both library or the internet. To make a good presentation our team used the journal of Anne Maxwell (2008) ”Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. The Journal of Modern History . no. 1. pp 165-166.” The aim of the author was clear: she illustrated how photography become significant for eugenics people as a means of identifying people with superior features and inferior hereditary divergence. Furthermore, the given journal article raised the topic of racism to provide the deep understanding of historic value. Furthermore, this timeline was well- known due the emergence of criminal photography invented by french police officer Alphonse Bertillon who made huge influence on photography as an anthropological tool and the way of identification. Certainly, this experience from visual studies helped to seek the information from keywords and use for sharing the knowledge.
Then, during the whole course , it is mandatory to use references, experiments and quotes for making the written work meaningful and prove the authenticity of a document. It is worth to focus on references as they allow to acknowledge the role of other writers and reviewers in the work . For instance, the journal article of Anonymous author “Digital Photography, Family Albums and Memory on Flickr” demonstrates the vast use of references and description of experiments fulfilled for the readers to show the rise of photography technology which reflected on family photographs and memory: “Digital image technology blurs these customary distinctions because the uniform time and continuous space of the photographic image are being stored in discrete image elements (pixels) that can be addressed or manipulated separately, and even seem to invite such treatment.” (Pauwels ,2002: 162) . By presenting the instance of Flickr website , the author uses a lot of quotes which has the one definition : photographs are used like the capture of random repetitive and meaningless moments but not as a way of storing the valuable family memory. Moreover, the presented topic in the article could raise a lot of philosophical questions "how, in practice, do we go about organizing our lives? How do we understand our own existences? How do we archive our lives?" (Artiéres, 1998: 14) which means that photographic memory must have the deep meaning for the future existence.
Finally, the most common way of knowledge documentation is writing reviews. What is more, academic writing classes attach importance on writing the reviews as they can help help 3rd year photography students to capture the progress of huge work they did. The journal article of the digital media professor Jose van Dick (2008) “Digital photography: communication, identity, memory” Visual Communication , vol. 7, issue 1, p. 57–76 .” explores the function of photography as a tool of communication, identity formation and cultural memory in virtual life ‘Photography’s functions as a tool for identity formation and as a means for communication were duly acknowledged, but were always rated secondary to its prime purpose of memory’ (Barthes 1981[1980]; Sontag, 1973). For this article the author uses a lot of literature about digital photography and describes the real existing experience of spreading of photographs - for example, Abu Ghraib prison , where the soldiers shared the pictures of tortured prisoners what cause the another perception of photo-sharing “It is quite plausible that personal pictures might emerge in entirely different public contexts, either as testimony to a criminal on the run, as a memorial to a soldier who died in the war, or as evidence of a politician’s excessive alcohol use in college” (Sturken, 1999). Lastly, van Dijck makes the conclusion about her research by arguing that personal photography and photo- manipulation in digital media has an immense effect on common society.
To conclude, the kind of art like photography is worth to delve into, gather the crucial knowledge which will be needed afterwards. The academic writing can encourage developing of grammatically presented material for successful work , nevertheless, if this subject is provided improperly , then it is possible that the sense of uselessness of the given subject can appear. That is why students could struggle with the relationship between photographic practice and academic writing classes.
References:
Weizman, E. and Varvia, C. (2015) Burden of Proof: The Construction of Visual Evidence. The Photographers’ Gallery.
Maxwell, A. (2008). Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. The Journal of Modern History . no. 1. pp 165-166.
Van Dijck, H. (2008) . “Digital photography: communication, identity, memory” Visual Communication , vol. 7, issue 1, pp. 57–76 .
Anonymous. Digital Photography, Family Albums and Memory on Flickr
Larsen, Jonas (ed.) (2013) Digital Snaps: The New Face of Photography. London: I. B. Tauris
Chandler, D. (1999) Semiotics for Beginners . University of Wales, 2000. Pp 1- 10