Thursday 21 October 2010

WEEK 8 : PHOTOGRAPHY: RECONCEPTUALISING CULTURE, MEMORY AND SPACE


I use photography to document real events for memory of the past and current lives. For me it is the plain pictures that act to retain or pause a moment to keep it as memory. All this time, It has never crossed my mind that photography can act as a powerful weapon of  photographer’s intention. Photographer that controls what he/she wants to make people see. The power that for me act like a “spell” where it can cause people to be manipulated. Upon learning photography in class, I learn that photography can be seen as a cultural critique that can lure people into criticizing the issues that the photograph raised. Photographers took a picture that depicts a cultural critique in order to lure people’s mind to criticize what he want them to criticize. In this journal, I would like to investigate on how the cultural critique of photography leads to mass persuasion where only by this cultural critique, human minds are easily compelled. How cultural critique change our perception of photography. 


As stated by Liz wells in her book thinking about photography: a critical introduction, Susan Santog discussed photography as trace of reality on interrogated photography in terms of extent to which the image reproduce reality. (Wells,1996)


Indonesian construction workers house in Brunei



Last week, I took a photograph of an Indonesians construction worker's house  in Brunei, this improper construction house is situated about a few miles from my house. My purpose of taking this photograph is to allow the interpretation of audience to see this image as what I want them to see.  My intention is to raise the issue on the cultural critique of capitalism as the driving force in Indonesian government.  As shown in this picture, the denotation shows Indonesian workers seem to be living in an improper house made of zinc in Brunei away from their homeland of Indonesia. This alone connotes the negative ideologies of Indonesian capitalism as the root of their suffrage. Capitalism allows profit to be privately owned, those who are rich, gets richer while those who are poor stays poor. Widening the gap between the rich and the poor. This biased form of government system is exactly what happened in Indonesia as stated by Richard Robinson, “It is capitalism which constitutes the most dynamics social, economic and political force at work in Indonesia today, rapidly and remorselessly uprooting and reshaping the lives of its people”. (Robinson, 2009).


These Indonesian workers are victims of capitalism as they are here, traveling across the sea to live in our country to seek for job opportunities. Living in an improper house in an unpleasant environment , with  no proper water supply, and no proper sewage system. Audiences will easily be moved by what this photography has shown just because I as a photographer  has managed to capture a cultural critique of the image. Audiences will easily be compelled only by seeing images of a cultural critique where this photograph will always be seen as a memory to the inefficiency of Indonesian government on handling unemployment as well as the cruelty of capitalism.


Upon taking this photograph, I have captured a real life scene that enables the portrayal of politics. Here, I have captured the politics of poverty. Politics is defined as the struggle over meaning. Those Indonesia construction workers in my photography depict their struggle over the meaning of success, the difficulties of living in a bad infrastructure house with no facilities to call it a home. How difficult it is to survive in other country, struggling to find the meaning of being in a foreign place. They also face difficulties as they struggle over the meaning of being underachievers. People perception’s on the discourses of construction workers house draws the negative ideologies of this type of house as the destruction of a beautiful environment. This individual struggle to live with the ideologies of people’s perception about them. How it feels like to live in a foreign place made up of unwanted materials, having been seen as an interruption to an environment. All of the political point of view exist due to these individuals being victimized by the cruelty of capitalism. The cultural critique of capitalism that I have shown in this photograph is the causation of their politics.

When taking the picture, I act as a photographer where I possess the power to influence people’s perception. By taking a picture containing a cultural critique, I create such an emotional impact in people’s mind and having the power to compelled people into what I wanted them to criticize.


In conclusion, the historical invention of Joseph Niepce prove to be a powerful weapon  to human's perception. Its powerful yet most deadliest tool of cultural critique has attracted political photographer as well as photojournalist to compelled the public. Photography has put its mark in the world by affecting the lives of each and everyone of us. It has no longer been seen as a trace of reality but as  powerful device that act to shattered our emotions away.


References:

Robinson, Richard (2009).Indonesia: The rise of capitalism. Equinox publishing . Singapore.
Wells, Liz. (1996). Thinking about Photography: a critical introduction ( 3rded). Routledge. London.

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