The Brief

Record a real conversation with a friend. (It’s up to you whether you ask permission or not!). Before listening to the recording, write you account of both sides of the conversation.

Then listen to the recording and make a note of the discrepancies. Perhaps there are unfinished sentences, stammers, pauses, miscommunications etc.

Reflect upon the believability of re-enacted narratives and how this can be applied to constructed photography. What do you learn from the conversation process and how can you transfer what you learned into making pictures?

The Conversation

For this exercise I decided to record a conversation between my wife and I about a goal I plan to set for 2021. I asked her permission to record the conversation beforehand, but asked her to put aside this fact in order to keep the discussion as natural as possible. The conversation was something that I had considered over the Christmas period, following a difficult December which resulted in my being made redundant and electing not to get another job in the short term. As well as focusing on my studies and building my experience as a photographer, I wanted to focus on a goal that I had set myself before COVID-19 took hold last year. As a keen open-water swimmer I wanted to complete the longest single lake swim in the UK, an 11 mile endurance race in Lake Windermere that prospective Channel swimmers use for practice. My wife, who is an accomplished athlete was the first person I needed to discuss training with.

I started by laying out what I needed from her in terms of advice on preparation, specifically the program of getting back in the swimming pool after being away from it for most of 2020. We talked about the potential distances that I would need to cover to get to a level of stamina that would accelerate my first lake swims, due to start in May. We talked about having structure to my day once I had finished my full-time job in January, part of which would include my daily exercise. Jayne talked about the quieter times that were available at the pool for swimming and how I could balance this training with my rowing machine, cycling and walking. We also discussed working on elements of my swimming other than just the stamina. Instead of just racking up the miles, Jayne talked about strength and speed sessions in the pool for the obvious benefits as well as keeping it interesting.

Listening to the Playback

The first noticeable detail in the recording was the relaxed manner in which it took place. This shouldn’t be a surprise, given that it was a discussion between husband and wife about a shared interest; my training for a big challenge. However, I noticed that the volume and tempo of the conversation didn’t change throughout the recording. It was clear from the dialogue that this was a subject that both parties had knowledge about, so while the conversation was essentially me asking Jayne for advice, the tone was one of agreement rather than ‘challenge’. Each point that was made was met with agreement from the other party in the form of ‘yeah’ or ‘uh huh’ which is different from a written discourse. Another observation about conversational communication was that the answers to questions or points were constructed in real time, which led to both of us starting a sentence and then starting it again, for example “It would be nice to…er..it would be nice to…”. This ‘live’ narration is something that we only see in verbal communication to the extent that when we are presented with a consummate public speaker (using a prepared autocue), it is noticeably absent. I was reminded of this recently when viewing the last of President Obama’s speeches at the White House Press Corps dinner in 2016 [1]. Obama’s impeccable delivery was aided by the fact that the speech was in front of him, but reading lines has the same pitfalls as talking off-the-cuff. His skill as an orator was more about taking his time, judging the reactions to his many jokes and not filling the silences that most people would naturally insert into such dialogue.

Other observations about our conversation were how different messages were delivered through the tone and pitch of our voices, as well as the use of interruption to pick up on a point and re-emphasise or contradict. An example of the former was when Jayne was talking about mixing the training schedule up with swimming drills rather than just focusing on distance. Her voice changed pitch at this suggestion as if drawing my attention to a specific piece of information in her advice. Also, when the conversation drew to a close, the ‘conclusion’ that I described about how I would train tailed off in terms of pitch, as if introducing a finality to the discussion.

The believability of re-enacted narratives in constructed photographs

My initial thoughts after listening to the recording of our conversation were that it generally reflected I had believed it to have gone from memory. The discussion was helpful in gathering thoughts about my training program and I got what I needed from my wife’s experiences as an athlete. The main difference was that I had a great deal of contextual information before and during the conversation. When I listened to the recording, the inflections, hesitations and two way dialogue was different from my memory. As with the visual, the audible response is open to interpretation of only what is presented (think our emotional reaction to music). In that case, if the discrepancies in communication are detected audibly, the same can be said for the elements included in an image. If our conversation was represented visually, the picture might convey a polite, loving relationship with nobody taking the role of teacher or student, so how would the viewer know what the conversation was actually about? If the inflections were represented by strong visuals over other weaker ones, how would that affect how the viewer reads the picture? If the viewer is responsible for the narrative (Barthes)[2], does the artist have any accountability for the ‘meaning’ of the photograph?

For me, the artist creates the image with just enough context to help the forming of a narrative in the viewer, that will differ from person to person. If the picture is intended to recreate an emotional sensation or invoke a memory, the more the artist includes to make it more real for them, the less likely the viewer is to read the meaning. For example, Paul Seawright stated that he had been criticised for creating work that was impenetrable because of the lack of contextual elements; the viewer struggling to create a narrative from what was presented. The work may have been important to Seawright, but if the image didn’t get the message across in a way that the viewer could understand, its impact is diminished. I think the ‘believability’ of an image comes from the way that the elements are treated as a language, such that there is a clear story distinguished by the contrast between the signs, studium and punctum. If the artist wants to draw attention to the mood of a particular element, it is their responsibility to ensure that the viewer sees if as they prepare their internal narrative. For example, in Wall’s image Insomnia, the passage of time is represented by the setting being at night and the trace evidence of there having been a clock on the wall. If the artist wanted to signpost the meaning, he could have left the clock in place. In choosing to leave just the mark on the wall where the clock used to be, he introduces the question of just how long the subject has been in the kitchen. When coupled with the clear nighttime feel incorporating the blacked out window, the artist suggests that time is dragging or has even possibly stopped completely for the sufferer. There is no uncertainty or debate about the hopelessness of suffering from insomnia and the imprisonment it creates, no gentle debate between the artist and viewer but instead the relationship of clear communication.

Conclusion

In preparing the submission for Assignment 5, I am considering the learning from looking at Wall, Crewdson and diCorcia, all of whom created fabricated realities through very careful placement of elements in the scene. If any component introduced confusion in the viewer, it was left out or re-imagined to be more impactful. It has been interesting to contrast my understanding of a conversation vs. the actual verbal dialogue that took place. It is little wonder that we encounter misunderstanding in our daily communications, particularly non-verbal. My conclusion from this exercise is that clarity of the written word, with its intentions or unintended consequences is more akin to the way that fabricated images appeal to the viewer. Viewers should have room to explore the work and create their narrative, but the intent, whether atmosphere, political statement or emotion should be clear enough for that process to be able to begin.

References

[1] Global News, 2016, “Obama Out: President Barack Obama’s hilarious final White House Correspondents Dinner Speech”. Global News Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFkEj7KPC0&t=184s

[2] Barthes R, 1967, ‘The Death of the Author’, essay

[3] 2014, “Catalyst:Paul Seawright”, https://vimeo.com/76940827