“This photographic assignment requires you to consider the suffix ism celebrated as the word of 2015 by Merriam-Webster, the online American dictionary website.
An article written by Alison Flood for the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday 16th December 2015 reported on the most popular words searched for in 2015 using Merriam-Websterʼs site: “Socialism” was the most looked-up word on Merriam-Websterʼs site this year (2015), a change the American dictionary publisher attributes to US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has positioned of himself as a “democratic socialist”. Last year (2014), “culture” was the dictionaryʼs top word; this year, socialism sparked “intense” curiosity, with an increase of 169% in look-ups compared to 2014, according to the dictionary. “Socialism has been near the top of our online dictionary look-up list for several years,” said editor-at-large Peter Sokolowsk. “However, this year look-ups for socialism moved up even further, beginning with the July campaign events for Bernie Sanders, remaining high throughout the following months and spiking again after the first Democratic debate in October.”
Merriam-Webster said that the fact that Sanders has embraced socialism “shows the term has moved beyond its cold war associations”. It has now included new information in its dictionary entry for the term, writing: “In the modern era, ʻpureʼ socialism has been seen only rarely and usually briefly in a few communist regimes. Far more common are systems of social democracy, now often referred to as ʻdemocratic socialismʼ, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, has been employed by democratically elected governments (as in Sweden and Denmark) in the belief that it produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth.”
Socialism is not the dictionaryʼs word of the year, though – that honour goes for the first time to a suffix, “ism”, reflecting the fact that many of Merriam-Websterʼs most looked-up words in 2015 ended in “ism”. These include “fascism” – which saw a spike in look-ups following Donald Trumpʼs remarks about banning Muslims from entering the US – and “terrorism”, looked up frequently following the Paris, Colorado Springs and San Bernardino attacks. “In November,” said the dictionary, “some conservatives began using ʻfascistʼ to describe Trumpʼs proposals and style, and at the beginning of December, writers for Slate and the New York Times and a commentator on CNN all referred to Trump as a fascist, sending many people to the dictionary.” “Racism” look-ups increased by 50% over last year, prompted by the South Carolina church shooting, the University of Missouri protests and incidents of police violence, while “feminism” also saw a spike in searches thanks to “Amy Schumerʼs success, Hillary Clintonʼs candidacy and coverage of Caitlyn Jennerʼs story”. Two more -isms – “communism” and “capitalism” – complete a list of seven words that represent “millions of individual look-ups” over the last year.
A suffix is a letter or group of letters added at the end of a word which makes a new word. The new word is most often a different word class from the original word. A suffix can change verbs to adjectives and change verbs to nouns. For example, the word social is an adjective (a word that describes a noun or pronoun), but socialism is a noun (a word that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality).
We would like you to use the suffix of …ism using the article by Alison Flood as inspiration to develop an idea or set of ideas as a prompt for creating a new set of images. We expect you to conduct and record the development of your ideas in a visual research journal along with supplementary research relevant to your ideas and practice. Using any technologies associated with photography you are open to explore the assignment. The final results of the experiment are to be presented as a sequence of images in a publication this could take the form of a zine, self-made book or print-on demand book. Attention to layout and sequencing of images and complimentary text is paramount in how the idea(s) will be received. Careful consideration of sequencing images is equally important. Consider the various from of sequencing available i.e. linear/nonlinear narrative, sequential, serial and taxonomic. How might they enhance the idea(s) being enunciated?”
Photobook Examples
For my word, I chose Aestheticism. Aestheticism is an art movement that focuses on art for the sake of art, and aesthetic values without any underlying context and meaning. Although on the surface, it may seem that aestheticism doesn’t critically engage the audience, I disagree. I believe that by removing a piece of art from any kind of context, the viewer can then be free to attribute their own meanings to the image, or simply enjoy the art. I also believe that there is a lot of science and philosophy that goes into what is aesthetically pleasing. For example, there are some examples that are overwhelmingly seen as aesthetically pleasing, by most of the human population. Here is where I believe science and mathematics can apply. There are definitely factors that contribute to what makes a “good image” in terms of art.
One of the first things I think of when I think about what makes something visually appealing is the Golden Spiral.
This article goes into detail about Professor Edmund Harriss, who has studied the golden spiral and the golden rectangle in detail. He divided up the golden rectangle in such a way that he was able to create mathematical equations which lead to aesthetically pleasing curves.
“Harriss was overjoyed when he first saw the spiral because it was aesthetically appealing – one of his primary aims was to draw branching spirals like you might find in Islamic art or the work of Gustav Klimt. But he was particularly delighted because he arrived at the spiral using a very simple mathematical process.
“It’s not hard to make something that no one has seen before,” he said. “It’s more difficult to make something mathematically satisfying that people haven’t seen before.””
““The ratios already turn up in maths and art, which suggests that the proportion systems capture some idea of simplicity for these numbers,” said Harriss, adding that he is working on a proof that every algebraic number is the ratio of a rectangle belonging to a proportion system.”
The golden spiral occurs naturally in nature, and the fact that it is a product of a mathematical equation may be used as evidence for the fact that aesthetic values can be constructed from maths and science.
This website explains Fibonacci numbers and how they can be seen in nature.
It also explains that there are instances where something may not exactly line up with the golden spiral, yet still holds similar values, and so it can still be scientifically explained as to why it is aesthetically pleasing.
“The Nautilus shell spiral is not a Golden spiral but often still has Golden Ratio proportions.
The nautilus shell is often shown as an illustration of the golden ratio in nature, but the spiral of a nautilus shell is NOT a golden spiral, as illustrated below”
“The Nautilus spiral, however, while not a Golden spiral, often displays proportions its dimensions that are close to a golden ratio, appearing in successive rotations of the shell as the Nautilus grows. As with all living organisms, there is variation in the dimensions of individuals, so the appearance of the golden ratio is not universal.”
Another aspect I looked at in how aesthetics may be scientifically assigned was a term more related with photography: the Rule of Thirds.
The rule of thirds works by creating a 3×3 grid across an image. Although not a hard and fast rule for images, a general application of the rule of thirds would be that a horizontal line in the image, such as the horizon or where the foreground and background intersect, would be placed along one of the horizontal lines of the grid. The main point of interest would be placed along one of the vertical lines of the grid. The rule of thirds often utilises asymmetry to invoke an aesthetically pleasing image.
However, although these methods imply there may be a mathematical reasoning behind aesthetic values, it has to also be said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One person may find one image beautiful, but a different person can find the same image completely uninspiring. This is the kind of aestheticism I would like to explore in my project- art for the sake of art, so it will mean a different thing to each person who views it.
“Aesthetics, in the world of art and photography, refers to the principles of the nature and appreciation of beauty. Judging beauty and other aesthetic qualities of photographs is a highly subjective task. Hence, there is no unanimously agreed standard for measuring aesthetic value.” – Datta et al., Pennsylvania State University.
Another thing to consider in looking into aestheticism is how aestheticism in photography differs from aestheticism in art. Many believe that photography is not taken as seriously as art as an art form.
“Today many art history books have little or no mention of those great masters. If I ask art majors or art history majors to what school Picasso belongs, every one of them can answer “Cubism” immediately. But if the same question is asked about Henri Cartier-Bresson, few of them have ever heard of “Photography of Decisive Moment.” Further, it is currently acceptable if an art school does not offer a photography emphasis, but painting is required. When photography courses are offered, they are electives, whereas painting courses are mandatory. Painting overwhelmingly dominates many art magazines such as American Artists and Art in America. Although there are several photographic magazines such as Popular Photographer and Outdoor Photographer in the market, they feature the technical aspects instead of the aesthetic. Taking all of the above into consideration, it is necessary to build a theory of the aesthetics of photography.
Few philosophers of art address the aesthetics of photography.” -Chong-ho Yu, Ph.D.
I am hoping that my photographic work will address aesthetic value in its purest form- images that everyone can agree are beautiful. By not demanding an association with the audience, they are able to critically evaluate the art for themselves, as can often be done in art.
Examples of Aesthetic Photographers
Ansel Adams
“His name was synonymous with aestheticized and depoliticized landscape photography.”
Ansel Adams is one of the most famous landscape photographers.
Alfred Stieglitz
Stieglitz was one of the first to defend photography as a fine art.
Alex Yu
Yu is a photographer who describes himself as “interested in art over technical aspects.”
Mira Nedyalkova
Winner of the Fine Art Amateur category of the Fine Art Photo Awards 2015
Examples of Aesthetic Photobooks
Rinko Kawauchi – Kirakira
Steve McCurry – India
Diane Cook – Len Jenshel – Hot Spots
For my photography, I chose images that I believed invoked these pure aesthetic values I previously talked about. Although I was able to go out and take a lot of photos particularly for this project, I was extremely ill this term, and so I wasn’t able to get as many photos as I wanted. Therefore, I also used some photos that I had previously taken, but also held up the same standards.
All of the images I chose were taken with aesthetic values in mind. When editing them, I did not want to do too much to overcomplicate and distract from the aesthetics. A few, I softened colours to give a romantic feel, and many were made black and white, to show the best examples of tonal variations and textual differences.
In putting together the book, I tried to create a visual flow throughout, so each picture blended into the next. It began with landscape, earthy photos of water, and ended with black and whites or night time shots. The images progressed throughout, and could be viewed as a single image, or altogether.
For the book, I presented it entirely without comment, so that no underlying concepts would be prematurely presented to the reader. They were instead free to make their own impressions of each image. I also aligned the images with a slightly bottom heavy border- this was intended, so that the reader could add their own notes as to what image meant to them.
Most of the images are simple in their beauty and aesthetics, but there are a few I would like to talk about, and why I chose them.
Cover Art
I chose this photo as the cover image, as it is a very soft and romantic image. The fact that it is not entirely in focus alludes to the aesthetic value of the overall book. I have added noise to the image to give it a vintage feel. Altogether, I think this photo is a beautiful and eyecatching image, even if it is not technically perfect.
Paignton Sea Images
For this set of images, I added a slight dusty pink filter to the image, to give it a soft and romantic glow.
Sea and Cloud
Both of these abstract images have no clear focus, yet they are both popular with those I share my work with. I have included them as examples of images that can invoke an emotional response without clearly depicting a subject.
Gulls
I have included this picture for the specific reason that the birds are not entirely in focus. I used it to show that a photo can still be incredibly visually appealing, even if it is not technically perfect.
Duck
I included this image as an example of close up details.
Every image used in the book, in order
