READINGS.

     This week we had two different readings to do. One reading was just for us as individuals but the other we had to get into groups outside of class time and discuss it, in order to come to conclusions and a better understanding of what the reading was trying to convey.

     The first reading was the chapter "Loading..." in "Photography" by John Ingledew. I found out a lot more about the basics of photography from this chapter and a little more about how cameras work. Some facts I picked up on were:

• Photography mixes different elements - chemistry, physics, optics, computers, electronics, commerce and creativity
• Photographs can be powerful things - melting taboos, swaying opinions and cause explosive impacts
• Photography gets straight to the heart of an issue and instantly grabs an event or personality
• There was the invention of a cheap $1 camera by Kodak called the Kodak Brownie - which was specifically for children and helped revolutionise photography
• Colour film uses the three basic colours of red, green and blue and then it can recreate any shade of colour
• Pixel is short for "picture element" and each one is a solid block of colour 
• Once an image is digitalised you can change any of the pixels - altering the brightness, colour and contrast
• There are many similarities between the eye and the camera, eyes seen in stereo vision wheres photos only show 2 dimensions.

    The next reading was the one we had to discuss in our smaller presentation groups. This was Chapter 2 of Graham Clarke's "The Photograph" entitled "How Do We Read a Photograph". For our discussion we were given a series of questions to help us understand; what the author is trying to say, whether we agree with the given argument, what it represents and any questions that had arisen. The information we gathered was that you definitely cannot just be passive when looking at a photo and although some people don't, you need to look further and read into it. We also established that there are certain photo's such a the generic "selfie" that seem completely common with no meaning at all, when we should be looking deeper at the picture and see areas of confidence or insecurity. We also felt that because of the increase of huge photographic outlets such as Instagram, photos are taking so frequently that sometimes a meaning is lost particularly is the photo is filtered and then becomes distorted and changed. Some questions that we came up with were are all elements of a photograph placed there distinctively by the photographer to create a particular impact and message or are they just simple background features? Also, how does one's position in society alter the way they view a photo and influence this? And finally, how does the introduction and influence of new technology change the way that pictures are viewed and read?