Megan Haug
New Media Junior Seminar
Response to The Body and The Archive, Allan Sekula
September 25, 2015
Portraiture is nothing new to the visual artist; what is new to the visual artist is the medium of photography. Allan Sekula explores what it means to take a picture in modern society. There are many possibilities within the realm of photography. The power of this art form is a point of view without the interpretation of man. The camera is technically the one creating the photograph, so there are minimal effects from the hand of man in photography. Film photography is an art “in which objects preserve, mathematically their forms.” Photography perfectly captures what a person looks like. A man can be identified by his appearance, …show more content…
Bertillon developed the first modern ways of criminal identification a Galton began a method of composite photography. Bertillon wanted to highlight one individual person whereas Galton wanted to morph multiple people into one. This creation of one from the many is where the idea of the average man comes in, although the average man does not exist. “The average man constituted an ideal, not only of social health, but of social stability and of beauty.” Both men were looking to find the regularities within crime. Bertillon developed the idea have having a pair of photographs to identify a person (one photograph of the person head on and another of that same person in profile view.) This method of archiving a criminal is still used today. Bertillon was interested in identification by bodily appearance including the scars and deformities of a person. These physical traits will not change. Galton’s use of composite photography was very telling in the way that a criminal looks. He layered photographs of criminals on top of each other to highlight which physical traits they all shared. He found that there is not one physical trait that links all criminals together. Before this, it was previously thought that criminals had a certain look and appearance. Even more interesting than Galton’s work with prisoners was his work with families. He did composite photography within families to track resemblance and key physical traits of a certain family. He is able to uncover a hereditary likeness that exists within families. This could be done with two composites or
New Media Junior Seminar
Response to The Body and The Archive, Allan Sekula
September 25, 2015
Portraiture is nothing new to the visual artist; what is new to the visual artist is the medium of photography. Allan Sekula explores what it means to take a picture in modern society. There are many possibilities within the realm of photography. The power of this art form is a point of view without the interpretation of man. The camera is technically the one creating the photograph, so there are minimal effects from the hand of man in photography. Film photography is an art “in which objects preserve, mathematically their forms.” Photography perfectly captures what a person looks like. A man can be identified by his appearance, …show more content…
Bertillon developed the first modern ways of criminal identification a Galton began a method of composite photography. Bertillon wanted to highlight one individual person whereas Galton wanted to morph multiple people into one. This creation of one from the many is where the idea of the average man comes in, although the average man does not exist. “The average man constituted an ideal, not only of social health, but of social stability and of beauty.” Both men were looking to find the regularities within crime. Bertillon developed the idea have having a pair of photographs to identify a person (one photograph of the person head on and another of that same person in profile view.) This method of archiving a criminal is still used today. Bertillon was interested in identification by bodily appearance including the scars and deformities of a person. These physical traits will not change. Galton’s use of composite photography was very telling in the way that a criminal looks. He layered photographs of criminals on top of each other to highlight which physical traits they all shared. He found that there is not one physical trait that links all criminals together. Before this, it was previously thought that criminals had a certain look and appearance. Even more interesting than Galton’s work with prisoners was his work with families. He did composite photography within families to track resemblance and key physical traits of a certain family. He is able to uncover a hereditary likeness that exists within families. This could be done with two composites or