Summary Of Laurel Nakadate's Project '365 Days'
MORENO, Maxine
3SCL2
HUMANITIES 1: Art, Man, and Society
Laurel Nakadate's project entitled 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears, shows her attempt of exploring the world loneliness by documenting a year-long performance of herself before, during, and after crying. Her project began in 2010 and ended a year after.
The images were photographed at different locations such as the bedroom, the train, comfort rooms, inside the airplane either dressed or half-naked. The techniques she used ranged from close-up body shots to the standard zoom of the camera. The photographs are printed at 8x10 [40x50 inches] dimension and was featured at MoMA in Long Island. An example of her photograph shows Nakadate holding her wrist while screaming in pain. Another image shows her half-naked body and is facing away from the camera as if she was avoiding it. Furthermore, the overall appearance of the photo gives of Nakadate's …show more content…
dark and eerie feeling of loneliness.
In the essay of Susan Sontag on photography, to collect photographs is tantamount to exploring and collecting the world.
To photograph is to appropriate the thing or idea photographed. This means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world (e.g. knowledge and power) (CITE). It provides "most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present." In line with this, she questioned the authenticity of the “result of photographic enterprises” by alluding Plato's allegory of the cave. The allegory reflects the idea of deception wherein cave prisoners learn and discover shadows of objects from the fire casted inside the cave, making them see and mislabel these images. Sontag argued that just like paintings and illustrations, photography gives us an incomplete representation to the world, which will likely to be falsely interpreted. Despite providing an “anthology of images”, photographs give us miniatures and glimpses of reality about the world (1). Images taken by the camera cannot fully capture the beauty and reality of the
world.
Photography, on the other hand, also provided a new visual code, grammar, and the ethics of seeing. First, the visual code involves more than the image. It also looks into every aspect of the photograph; specifically from the image’s hidden messages. Second, grammar studies the physical layout of the image. It analyzes the color, perspective, contrast, and what is worth seeing. Lastly, the ethics for seeing, from Sontag’s essay, highlights the connection of the viewer to the image. It focuses on how you feel upon looking into the subject of the photograph.
Another point that Sontag mentioned is that “a photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence” (7). Oftentimes, photographers do not engage in the place of their image since their aim is to conform to the standards of the new visual code and grammar of photography.
Meanwhile, in Jeanette Winterson’s Imagination and Reality, photography as art provides “most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present.” People are confined in their own imagination which narrow down their view of the world. This is relative to Sontag's use on the cave allegory which reflects the idea that people see photographs as the objects themselves. She also argued that people are too occupied by the “symbolic reality” that leads them on a confusion between the object and what the object represents (page 9). People chose “to stand mockingly on the threshold, claiming that nothing lies beyond” rather than: 1.) looking into the life of things and 2.) to discriminate between superficialities and realities (10).
Both authors emphasized that the world of photography is a world of “deduction, speculation, and fantasy” (Sontag cite page 10). They agree to a point that people can be misled and manipulated by the notional life encouraged by agencies such as the government, mass media, the education system, and the photographer as well (page 2). Winterson further added that art “is much more than a patronage of money; it is a warrant to bring back visions.”
In line with the arguments of Winterson and Sontag, Laurel Nakadate’s 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears is both photography and art. It is photography in the sense that it materialized the sense of loneliness felt by Nakadate. In doing so, she recorded herself before, during, and after crying for over a year. The spread of photography gave people an imaginary possession of a past [and present] that is unreal (4).
3SCL2
HUMANITIES 1: Art, Man, and Society
Laurel Nakadate's project entitled 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears, shows her attempt of exploring the world loneliness by documenting a year-long performance of herself before, during, and after crying. Her project began in 2010 and ended a year after.
The images were photographed at different locations such as the bedroom, the train, comfort rooms, inside the airplane either dressed or half-naked. The techniques she used ranged from close-up body shots to the standard zoom of the camera. The photographs are printed at 8x10 [40x50 inches] dimension and was featured at MoMA in Long Island. An example of her photograph shows Nakadate holding her wrist while screaming in pain. Another image shows her half-naked body and is facing away from the camera as if she was avoiding it. Furthermore, the overall appearance of the photo gives of Nakadate's …show more content…
dark and eerie feeling of loneliness.
In the essay of Susan Sontag on photography, to collect photographs is tantamount to exploring and collecting the world.
To photograph is to appropriate the thing or idea photographed. This means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world (e.g. knowledge and power) (CITE). It provides "most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present." In line with this, she questioned the authenticity of the “result of photographic enterprises” by alluding Plato's allegory of the cave. The allegory reflects the idea of deception wherein cave prisoners learn and discover shadows of objects from the fire casted inside the cave, making them see and mislabel these images. Sontag argued that just like paintings and illustrations, photography gives us an incomplete representation to the world, which will likely to be falsely interpreted. Despite providing an “anthology of images”, photographs give us miniatures and glimpses of reality about the world (1). Images taken by the camera cannot fully capture the beauty and reality of the
world.
Photography, on the other hand, also provided a new visual code, grammar, and the ethics of seeing. First, the visual code involves more than the image. It also looks into every aspect of the photograph; specifically from the image’s hidden messages. Second, grammar studies the physical layout of the image. It analyzes the color, perspective, contrast, and what is worth seeing. Lastly, the ethics for seeing, from Sontag’s essay, highlights the connection of the viewer to the image. It focuses on how you feel upon looking into the subject of the photograph.
Another point that Sontag mentioned is that “a photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence” (7). Oftentimes, photographers do not engage in the place of their image since their aim is to conform to the standards of the new visual code and grammar of photography.
Meanwhile, in Jeanette Winterson’s Imagination and Reality, photography as art provides “most of the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present.” People are confined in their own imagination which narrow down their view of the world. This is relative to Sontag's use on the cave allegory which reflects the idea that people see photographs as the objects themselves. She also argued that people are too occupied by the “symbolic reality” that leads them on a confusion between the object and what the object represents (page 9). People chose “to stand mockingly on the threshold, claiming that nothing lies beyond” rather than: 1.) looking into the life of things and 2.) to discriminate between superficialities and realities (10).
Both authors emphasized that the world of photography is a world of “deduction, speculation, and fantasy” (Sontag cite page 10). They agree to a point that people can be misled and manipulated by the notional life encouraged by agencies such as the government, mass media, the education system, and the photographer as well (page 2). Winterson further added that art “is much more than a patronage of money; it is a warrant to bring back visions.”
In line with the arguments of Winterson and Sontag, Laurel Nakadate’s 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears is both photography and art. It is photography in the sense that it materialized the sense of loneliness felt by Nakadate. In doing so, she recorded herself before, during, and after crying for over a year. The spread of photography gave people an imaginary possession of a past [and present] that is unreal (4).