August | 2020 | Michael Matthews

The Language of Photographs

by michael matthews

CAMERA

I got back from a holiday in Cape Town recently having told David I needed to visit my sisters. Really, I spent a weekend with my lover, Gabriel, after the weekend, when I returned to Johannesburg Gabriel posted a selection of the photographs of the weekend on his Facebook wall. I haven’t had a chance to view them yet, unexpectedly, David now wants to give me a lesson on how to understand photographs. “So, why are we looking at photographs is there any point?” I ask: “I know you see yourself as a specialist in the matter, but, I am really not interested.”

“I want to teach you how to understand what you are seeing when you look at a photograph.” David replied: “I want you to understand the language of photography. I found an interesting photograph on the web, I will show you how to read it.” His aim seems reasonable, so we sit on our queen sized bed with David’s laptop between us.

“I click on this yellow folder it opens. The icon you see is the file of the photograph we are going to discuss. The image is in a lossy graphics format, a JPEG, I can see this in the information below the icon. JPEG stands for ‘Joint Photographic Experts Group’ the people who actually created the compression standard. A professional photographer will usually shoot in the largest file type called RAW, RAW image files contain the least amount of processed data from the image sensor in the camera as it is the digital equivalent to a negative in film photography. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed therefore are not ready to be printed or edited, you need a special programme to see them.” David pedantically explained to me as if I am an idiot.

“I click on the icon once, like this, it is now selected. In the bottom band of the open folder you can see the files hidden METADATA. There are three types of metadata: descriptive; structural; and administrative, here you can confirm the file TYPE, SIZE and DATE; when it was created and modified. The file size indicates the photograph is of a good quality and can be printed up to an A3 size comfortably. The date indicates the photograph was taken on the 18th March then modified on the 20th March. I’m now going to recall what I was doing on the day it was created, so that we can contextualise it in a personal way. This will help me contextualise the photograph in our personal time frame. I am going to use the calendar in my mail program, Outlook Express, to find out what I was doing on that day.”

He opens Outlook Express, clicks on the calendar tab. I can see how the date falls over a weekend; on a Saturday.

“This leads me to conclude the photographer is not a professional as a professional usually works during the week unless a special shoot is organised. I will hold this thought deferring the judgement till I can gather more facts.” He looks up at me with this revelation giving a satisfied sigh.

“Close your eyes visualise what you were doing on that day. It was a cold grey day here in Johannesburg, I woke to the sounds of hard rain slamming into the tin roof, I was worried about the roof leaking. The cats were on the bed leaving small muddy footprints on the duvet, I was worried this would upset you when you got back. I drunk too much wine the night before in a pathetic attempt to celebrate the end of the week once again because I missed you. After two cups of coffee I decided to do some writing. In the early hours of the morning I had a dream, it was so vivid I decided to write a short story about it entitled ‘The Language of Photographs’. By ten I began to write while the rain continued to slam down outside.” He grimaces at me wiggling his fingers down in front of his face like raindrops running down a window pane.

“Back to the file, the precise time the photograph was taken is also accessible, you can see it was taken at precisely 13:05 PM. Now you got to go deeper into your visualisation, search your mind for the smallest specifics in the details. I remember I was taking a break from writing. I tried to call you but you didn’t answer. I was feeling sad, dejected the rain not helping. Look here on my phone the time of the missed call and the photographs timestamp are both the same. I was having a sad miserable day missing you as I love you so much.” David’s attention to detail is dumb founding. “Now we need to check some more of the facts found in the file so I’m going to right click on the file. Look, a window slides out; I scroll down with my mouse to the PROPERTIES link. The other options are of little interest. I left click this link, a new window opens giving me the files properties, at the top of this window you can see two tabs. A GENERAL tab is opened by default, containing all the metadata already gathered above. I could have taken note of the file name earlier but now is the right time it is IMG_5219. The photographer has not named his shoot, through ignorance and/or laziness, using the camera’s default numbering system. This, adds to my collective knowledge; it is not a professional photographer took this photograph. At this point, I envisage a person who is armed with a camera using this prosthetic device to record events. The person is not a professional, but a hobbyist.” I look at his laptop screen in awe. I can’t believe so much information is recorded about a single file, it starts to make me paranoid.

“Let’s see what else IMG_5219 tells us. The IMG part confirms it’s an image file. Now let’s look at the image number. The average camera can take 10 000 images before the number count rolls over to zero again. This number is about halfway so the photographer either has a new camera or a very old one has rolled over before. Based on the collective evidence I can conclusively surmise this is an enthusiast who records events regularly, more of that later. The size of the file is one megabyte – of good quality. In this tab, the CREATED, MODIFIED and ACCESSED information is of a general nature not accurate enough to be of further use. I will now click the next tab, at the top of the window, the DETAILS tab. This promises to be more informative if one understands its relevance. The first sub-point, DESCRIPTION, is typically left blank. In the second sub-point, ORIGIN, two lines are filled in DATE TAKEN and PROGRAM NAME. In this case the PROGRAM NAME is Photoshop CS6, a very powerful professional editing programme. This makes me conclude the photographer may lack photographic skill but takes pride in his work. The next point, IMAGE, confirms the size and resolution of the image. Now for the most important point, CAMERA, this is where all the information about the camera is stored, its MAKER, MODEL and DETAILED information about the camera settings. In this case it is a Canon EOS 550D. This tells me the photographer invested in a good reliable camera, not the top of the range, but one that has stood the scrutiny of many camera enthusiasts around the world. The setting information tells me the photographer used a shallow depth of field – 5.6, so has purposely blurred the background. The shutter speed or exposure time was set at 100th of a second, the slowest time for a handheld shot. Anything slower and a tripod is needed, so the photographer was not using a tripod. This information combined with the ISO setting leads me to conclude there was a fair amount of cloud cover, I guess a forty percent cloud cover. The next important clue is the focal length, in this case it’s 81mm. This indicates a long lens and not a wide angle lens was used. It means the subject could be far from the camera, up to one hundred metres. This information will be collaborated in conjunction with the image. Finally, the sub-tab indicates no flash was used, so the lighting is natural daylight.”

All this technical mumbo-jumbo starts to bore me and my mind begins to wonder. Suddenly, David says: “If I had the sequence of photographs I would have a lot more information to work with. How soon the photographer took each photograph, if any of the photographs were deleted and when each photograph was opened collectively revealing the photographer’s personal preferences. Unfortunately, I have this one only.”

I never realised one could forensically track an image like this. I begin to feel like I am looking at a body in a pathology lab.

“We are now ready to open the photograph. I double click on the icon. I’m working in Windows so the default image viewer opens. We get our first glimpse of the photograph, what we see is a woman with wild brown-grey white streaked hair. She is in the foreground with her back to the camera embraced by a lime green landscape. The landscape is out of focus appearing to be a fish pond of some sort with water lilies. The back of the centrally placed woman is only in focus, dominating the composition. It looks like a warm summer day, together with the date taken I confirm it is late summer.”

The photograph looks startlingly familiar and is absolutely beautiful. David continues to lecture: “We know a photograph is a simulacrum of reality, it’s a two dimensional mechanical interpretation of a three dimensional reality. It is also something captured in a time span quicker than what the brain is used to ‘interpreting’; in this case a hundredth of a second as confirmed in the metadata. The result is the brain understands the photograph differently to the way we experience nature. The brain recontexturalises the cultural and mechanical information as post event data, with this in mind, the contrasts and colour intensities appear to be highly skilled. If this photograph was taken in the 1980s I would have marvelled at the craft but from the metadata I know the image is remastered in Photoshop. I can still affirm it is a sunny day no matter how much the photograph is digitally altered. In Johannesburg it was raining on that day, I can check this with the weather APP on my cell. My APP confirms this informing me the place where the sun was only shining was in Cape Town. Although, the background is blurred the light is clear like nowhere else in the world the light in the photograph reminds me of the kind of light Thomas Baines and Jan Volschenk captured in their paintings of Cape Town. If the photograph was taken in South Africa, I can safely deduce it was taken in Cape Town.”

David sounds really pleased with himself but I still can’t see where he is going with this lecture.

He arrogantly continues: “My visual image of the photographer has grown. I visualise an enthusiast who owns a good camera with some knowledge of photography. This photographer either read up on the topic or completed a few photography courses. The person also has a design background as the photographer has expensive post production software. This also implies the photographer is not confident in their pure photographic skills, but, feels secure in their graphic ability. The photographer also took the photograph in Cape Town on 18th February then modified it on the 20th.”

David looks at me significantly, but I don’t get it so I fidget impatiently.

“The question arises: how did the photographer use Photoshop to alter the image in the post production phase. Photoshop is a high end photograph manipulation programme; this opens many levels of possibilities. I’m going to open the image in Photoshop to see if there is any enlightening information hidden there.”

He opens the image in Photoshop after closing Image Viewer. “Look here, the level of tones is fairly narrow, too narrow for an unmodified photograph. I conclude, the photographer increased the depth of blacks, shortened the white levels, and lowered the mid-levels in Photoshop. Thus, creating the high contrast sparkle we see. The metadata confirmed earlier, a zoom lens was used so no cropping of the image was necessary. By intentionally lifting the image contrast the image is flattened with the reed blades in the upper part of the composition. These are set off better against the inverse blade-like hair strands. The two objects become interlocked on a joining plane, having a cubistic sense of ‘passage’; an interlinking of objects in different spatial locations.” He explains this by moving his arms in abstract karate chopping movements clarifies the spatial objects connections but makes me nervous.

“The background is used by the photographer to act like a stage supporting its main actor; the woman. Her back is to us, she is not treated as an individual; rather as a type. She appears to contemplate the pond as she is crouching down picking something up; maybe a flower. We now need to zoom back our imaginary view of the photograph, to behind the photographer. The photographer took the photograph at a downward angle indicating the photographer is standing on a bank; a usual feature next to a pond. Given the density of the lilies and that the far side of the pond is visible I conclude that the pond is not too large, possibly a feature at the bottom of someone’s garden. The lushness indicates it is not dry but moist in this part of the garden; maybe the water is supplied from a nearby lake. Looking at the dappled shadows on the woman’s hair, I surmise that the pond is encircled by large trees of the types found around ponds, such as Weeping Willows and Oaks. The woman seems to be contemplating a private moment but due to the photographer’s choices we can conclude the photographer wanted to capture a pensive moment.” David gets up paces the room. “Although the photographer uses a zoom lens, judging by the grain in the picture and the OSI settings, the photographer is not too far from the subject, I estimate five to eight metres. The woman’s position and her context reflects the photographer’s ability. She may look pensive and anomalous, but it is really the photographer that we get a picture of. Do you see that? The photograph reflects the photographer’s mood, a sense of awe for his subject as if there is unification between the subject, nature and the photographer.” He sits down wiping his sweating brow.

“The photographer offers the viewer a romantic view of a woman in nature similar to that captured by South African painters such as Strat Caldecott, it has the over stylised figures of Cecil Higgs and the delicate intimate views of Frieda Lock. These early South African artists come to mind because they also attempt to capture a similarity of light and mood. If I look at the abstract qualities of the composition I am drawn to the powerful triangular shape of the woman. She sits central and is contrasted against the horizontal bands of lilies. This stable composition is contrasted with striking diagonals found in the reeds and her hair. This powerful use of the artistic elements can also be found in the more abstract works of painters like Jo Smail and Nel Erasmus.” David is now mixing low and high art, a favourite hobby of his.

“If I visualise zooming further back out from the photograph, I can conclude the photograph was taken on a wine farm possibly on the rainy side of Stellenbosch due to its lushness. The photographer selected not to portray any political content giving us a sentimental view of nature in the ilk of David Caspar Friedrich, a nineteenth century Romantic artist. Due to a number of signs such as the lack of detail, the subject, the use of a shallow depth of field, the choice of lens and the post production methods I can conclude the photographer is male. The subject indicates he is photographing his lover. He is idealising her making her a symbol of nature. The kind of photograph a slightly sentimental man in his forties or fifties would make.”

“What do you know about the woman in the photograph? You seem to know about everything else from the geography to the history; the photographers personality even. You haven’t mentioned anything about her.” I ask concerned.

“A photograph always tells you more about the photographer than the subject. The subject is part of the vital clues but little is really revealed of her. It is the photographer’s passion, emotion and intellect is revealed. The photographer’s choices are like fingerprints they are everywhere. The photographer’s DNA is left everywhere in the metadata. Finding what has been left out of the photograph gives us more information about the photographer. It’s more about knowing what is not in the photograph than what’s in it. The photographer has left out all status or power symbols, children or friends, the historical context is underplayed and individualism disregarded. We can clearly say we understand the photographer sees his lover in a romantic light. She is bending down in a crouch by a pond while the photographer views the scene pensively. He takes the photograph to record his emotions and is not concerned with realism, celebrating the abstract qualities of the composition. He is a romantic wanting his mistress for himself, making his lover into art. If I give the photographer a name…. I think… I would call him… Gabriel!”

David looks accusingly at me for a long time then adds: “…by the way, weren’t you in Cape Town at the time the photograph was taken; supposedly visiting your sisters?”

Michael Matthews

Archive for August, 2020

Art Book: Mbasa Portraits – spread 4

Poem: DIVIDED CHOICE

Art Book: B-Secure – spread 5

A SHORT STORY: The Language of Photographs

Poem: MAGIC GRASS

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