Romanticism and Activism: A Comparison of the Work of Fay Godwin and Sebastiao Salgado
Romanticism and Activism – A comparison of the work of Fay Godwin and Sebastiao Salgado, to ascertain the degree to which they are romantics and how their images may move the viewer to action.
This essay will contrast how romanticism has influenced the photographic practice of Fay Godwin and Sebastiao Salgado, and how this approach in turn can start to affect environmental activism. The framework will specifically be within a genre defined by photographer David Ward, as ‘Romantic landscape’, (Ward, 2004, p.104). See plate 1.
Plate 1
Ward describes his approach as seeking to
‘evoking emotional responses from anonymous places’ (Ward, 2012)
Highlighting a romantic approach of connecting with emotions.
If an individual has an emotional response to an image they may be moved to action. Alistair Fuad-Luke describes activism as
“Activism is about….taking actions to catalyse, encourage or bring about change, in order to elicit social, cultural and/or political transformations. It can also involve transformation of the individual activists.’ (Fuad-Luke, 2009, p.5)
We shall look at the intentions of the reknown photographers towards being an activist and how their images can be read.
To read the images the theory defined by Barthes, as highlighting the denotation and connotation of images will be primarily used. “Barthes called the first, descriptive level, the level of denotation: the second level, that of connotation…Denotation is the simple, basic descriptive level where consensus is wide and most people would agree on the meaning…the second level of signification…. Is more general, global and diffuse” (Hall, 2011, p.38)
Carl Phillipp Fohr was one of the Romantics in Rome in 1816. Fohr devoted himself largely to Romantic landscape according to Wolf. His last and one of his most famous pictures was ‘The Ideal Landscape near Rocca Canterana’.
See plate 2.
Plate 2
If we look at the denotation then we have, a landscape with the influences of
This essay will contrast how romanticism has influenced the photographic practice of Fay Godwin and Sebastiao Salgado, and how this approach in turn can start to affect environmental activism. The framework will specifically be within a genre defined by photographer David Ward, as ‘Romantic landscape’, (Ward, 2004, p.104). See plate 1.
Plate 1
Ward describes his approach as seeking to
‘evoking emotional responses from anonymous places’ (Ward, 2012)
Highlighting a romantic approach of connecting with emotions.
If an individual has an emotional response to an image they may be moved to action. Alistair Fuad-Luke describes activism as
“Activism is about….taking actions to catalyse, encourage or bring about change, in order to elicit social, cultural and/or political transformations. It can also involve transformation of the individual activists.’ (Fuad-Luke, 2009, p.5)
We shall look at the intentions of the reknown photographers towards being an activist and how their images can be read.
To read the images the theory defined by Barthes, as highlighting the denotation and connotation of images will be primarily used. “Barthes called the first, descriptive level, the level of denotation: the second level, that of connotation…Denotation is the simple, basic descriptive level where consensus is wide and most people would agree on the meaning…the second level of signification…. Is more general, global and diffuse” (Hall, 2011, p.38)
Carl Phillipp Fohr was one of the Romantics in Rome in 1816. Fohr devoted himself largely to Romantic landscape according to Wolf. His last and one of his most famous pictures was ‘The Ideal Landscape near Rocca Canterana’.
See plate 2.
Plate 2
If we look at the denotation then we have, a landscape with the influences of
Bibliography: Barthes, R (2000), Camera Lucida. Vintage Bogre, M Clark, D.j. (2005), http://www.djclark.com/godwin/bio.html Faud-Luke, A (2009), design activism, beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world Fowles, J. (1985) essay within Godwin, F. (1985) Land. Heinemann London. Furst, R. L. (1969), Romanticism – The Critical Idiom. Methuen & Co Ltd. Galitz, Kathryn Calley. "Romanticism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm (October 2004) [29.4.12] Godwin, F Godwin, F. (2001) Landmarks, Dewi Lewis Publishing Godwin, F Hall, S. (2011), Representation – Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage Publications Ltd Marinko, P Nair, P. (2011) A different light – The Photography of Sebastiao Salgado, Duke Rauser, A Roszak, T. et al (1995), Ecopsychology – Restoring the Earth/Healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books Salgado, S Salgado, S. (2004), an uncertain grace. Thames and Hudson Sontag, S Stokes, P. (1998), http://www.djclark.com/godwin/critic.htm Tucker, J Ward 2012 - http://www.into-the-light.com/gallery [18.5.12] Wells, E (2011) Photography - A critical Introduction 4th Edition Wolf, N. (2007), Romanticism. Taschen Wolf, N