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tation from the photographs. In the case of a pristine cavernous gallery,
with an atmosphere of hushed reverence, perhaps associated with the
great art of past ages, when viewing flawlessly made prints in precious
overmats and carefully isolated frames, we are induced to mentally
approach the photographs from a particular angle: ART, with all the
connotations which this word implies. We carry the expectations of
viewing art to the photograph; the photograph is not thrusting it out at
us. In another context, exactly the same photograph, to the same mind,
would carry no art associations. Meaning has altered with the
photograph s context.
The meaning of a photograph is not intrinsic to the image. In other words,
there is no correct interpretation of a particular photograph, under all condi-
tions, in every context, to every viewer.
Another factor affecting meaning is the mere passage of time. Many
photographs taken in the 19th century, and considered by contempora-
MEANING, AND WHY IT IS SO SLIPPERY " 37
neous viewers as prosaic, uninteresting and even wasteful images,
have since become fascinating pictures, of immense value to histori-
ans and delightful curiosities to modern viewers because the sub-
ject matter no longer exists. In these instances, nostalgia is the power
of the picture. To anyone interested in women s fashion almost every
Victorian photograph of a crinoline is of interest. The original picture
was probably made as a prosaic family portrait; the image today is
viewed for the clarity of the dress design and the individual wear-
ing the crinoline is of marginal interest. The emphasis has dramati-
cally shifted through the age of the image.
Most early photographs are invariably viewed through a nostalgic
haze which markedly alters the value of the image away from the
photographer s original intent.
A more fundamental shift in image meaning occurs through time due to
visual conventions. In each age, there exists an unstated but acknowledged
circle of possibilities within which the image style is acceptable and beyond
which the image appears unacceptable, if not absurd. Gradually, through
the passage of time, this circle also moves. Previously accepted stylistic ap-
pearances appear old-fashioned and the previously unacceptable style is
absorbed and contained, becoming the norm.
We have already remarked that the first photographs of people walking in
the street (around 1859) might have been admired for their technical ac-
complishment (in an age when exposure times were measured in several
seconds) but they were also deplored for the ugly, ungainly actions of the
pedestrians. Contemporary viewers were aghast that people, including them-
selves, appeared so awkward in their movements; the visual convention of
the age had not included natural bodily actions.
A more striking example concerns images of horses in motion. Prior to
the 1870s paintings of trotting and galloping horses were all depicted
in exactly the same style: a hobby-horse attitude with front and rear
38 " ON LOOKING AT PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID HURN & BILL JAY
legs stretched out. This was the visual convention, the consensus of
opinion on how a horse in motion should be depicted. In the late 1870s
a photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, proved conclusively that at no
time during the action does a horse adopt this hobby-horse attitude.
The convention was broken. A new visual truth was agreed, at least by
the majority of painters. For a few, the visual convention was rigidly
held and they preferred the lie.
Such examples of visual conventions of the age are clearly understood in
retrospect. It is far more difficult, if not impossible, to acknowledge that we
all look at photographs today in relationship to the visual conventions of our
age. The seemingly insurmountable problem is to identify and isolate these
visual conventions, and to assess how they are influencing the meaning of
an image, while we are living in that age. Perhaps the only answer is to
acknowledge the presence of such conventions and understand that the
meaning of contemporary images will change with time, in ways that we
cannot even begin to predict. The original caption, or accompanying text,
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