Semiology and the photographic image

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Semiology and the photographic image

• Roland Barthes semiology as cultural criticism
• From the study of verbal language to that of
  cultural phenomena films, photographs, fashion,
  advertising, etc.
• Developing a common vocabulary and a rigorous or
  scientific method for the critical analysis of
  mass culture.
• Understanding the complexity and meaningfulness
  of all cultural artefacts despite their apparent
  "obviousness.
• The reality-effect (Roland Barthes)
• The impression of reality (Christian Metz)

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The photographic message the reality-effect

• The reality-effect
• So-called realism of the image makes it appear
  to be "natural" rather than socially and
  historically constructed.
• A product or production of the image--its
  structure of signification as a message.
• The appeal to a belief
• I know very well that this is only a photograph,
  yet I choose to believe in its reality.
• Arguing that the photograph functions as a sign
  is to discredit it as an innocent or neutral
  representation.

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What is a sign?

• There is an arbitrary relation between a sign and
  its meaning.
• Referent what the signifier purports to
  represent
• Signifier representational aspect
• Signified concept or meaning
• If the relation between signifier and signified
  is only defined by convention, then meaning or
  signification is socially and historically
  constructed.

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Ferdinand de Saussure
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The two traditions semiology and semiotics

• Semiology the study of signs based on
  linguistics
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Course on
  General Linguistics.
• Roland Barthes
• Christian Metz
• Semiotics the study of signs based on logic
• Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)
• Umberto Eco
• Gilles Deleuze

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Defining the sign representation

• The perceptible aspect of the sign how we
  recognize the sign as standing for something
• Saussure the signifier
• Peirce the representer or representamen
• Souriau the first degree of film form

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Defining the sign representation

• Peirce icon, index, and symbol
• An icon signifies in virtue of its resemblance,
  or its analogical relation to what it wishes to
  represent.
• A symbol does not resemble what it refers to it
  signifies through the force of convention.
• An index may but does not necessarily resemble
  its referent. It signifies in virtue of a
  relationship of contiguity with its referent. A
  causal or existential link is presumed.
• The representational character of signs can be,
  and often is, mixed or heterogeneous.

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Defining the sign signification

• How signs become meaningful to individuals and
  societies.
• Saussure the signified
• Peirce the interpretant
• Souriau the second degree of film form
• Signification is always defined by convention.
• The distinction between speech (parole) and
  language (langue).

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Defining the sign signification

• The distinction between speech (parole) and
  language (langue).
• Speech the everyday use of language. A
  potentially infinite number of statements.
• Language the limited number of rules we use in
  speaking.
• The distinction between message and code.

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Defining the sign signification

• The message is
• actual
• concrete
• singular
• heterogeneous
• A code is
• ideal
• abstract
• general
• homogenous

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Defining the sign signification

• A message is a singular, meaningful unit of
  discourse.
• A code is an abstraction created by the
  analyst--a logic reconstructed from the materials
  provided by the message.
• A code is a principle of intelligibility
  formulated by the film theorist through the
  analysis of specific "messages."
• Its unity or homogeneity is not of a sensory or
  material order rather, it is an order of logical
  coherence, valued for its explanatory power.

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Roland Barthes on photography

• The photographic message
• a sign can be a very complex structure that mixes
  forms and materials of representation
• a sign is meaningful only in context.
• Denotation and connotation
• The photographic paradox
• The photograph is a message without a code.

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The photograph is a message without a code
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Roland Barthes on photography

• The denotation of the photograph
• "Certainly the image is not the reality but at
  least it is its perfect analogon and it is
  exactly this analogical perfection which, to
  common sense, defines the photograph (17).
• The photograph as a "mechanical analogon" whose
  message is "the scene itself, literal reality."
• The photographic paradox
• The spectators fascination with "the here-now,
  for the photograph is never experienced as an
  illusion ..., its reality is that of the having
  been there, for in every photograph there is
  always the stupefying evidence of this is how it
  was, giving us, by a precious miracle, a reality
  from which we are sheltered" (44).

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Roland Barthes on photography

• The code gravitates toward connotational meaning.
• The imposition of a second meaning through
  editorial choice, laboratory manipulations,
  cropping, layout, etc.
• The informational or "obvious" meaning of the
  photograph.
• Connotation is to denotation as a caption or
  written text is to the photograph.
• If the message is "informational" then the code
  structures the "symbolic" level of meaning, that
  is, the range of meanings accruing to the image
  in virtue of conventional or cultural
  associations.

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Roland Barthes on photography

• Ideology and the image
• How the image structures social belief and
  meaning
• The ideological function of connotation, as
  regulated by given codes, is to reassure
  individuals and to integrate them into the
  society overall.
• How the image is naturalized by the code.
• The traumatic quality of the photograph as a
  suspension of language

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