Characteristics of photographic language

The best way to see the characteristics of photography language is to compare it with other languages we are familiar with. Photography language must have many similarities with written language, painting language and music language, even with posture language (action expression language) and information transmitted by nature itself (let's call it? Natural language? ) are inextricably linked. Through analysis and comparison, I'll tell you what characteristics photography language has. I hope it will help everyone!

(1) Features of photographic language: photographic language and written language.

Photography and writing have both similarities and differences. They often interact and combine with each other, but a really good photo must be beyond the description of words, that is, it must be beyond the description of words. Conversely, a photographic expression that can be clearly expressed in written language must be the most mediocre photographic expression. In the expression of photography, what is the most common understanding? A picture is worth a thousand words? Indeed, the photographic picture is vivid, lively, vivid and concrete, which is irreplaceable by any written language. But what about when you look at the picture? At a glance? , and reading ten eyes, in depth, especially in the quality of thinking, is incomparable. Although the expression of photographic vision can also enter a deeper level, in general, even? The era of reading pictures? The public is still used to the text reading mode and habit accumulated for thousands of years, and reading pictures is still there? Shallow reading? With what? Extensive reading? However, the conscious cultivation of the ability to read pictures (especially the ability to read pictures in depth) has not yet entered the active period of the whole people, that is to say, the visual education of photographic language needs a long historical period of accumulation and interaction from a global perspective.

Photography language belongs to the image language in visual language, and its expression is necessarily very different from written language, which is also for conveying information. Image language has irreplaceable advantages in the speed of information transmission and the amount of information transmitted per unit time, while written language is still incomparable in the concreteness and accuracy of information transmission. But in any case, the efficient and efficient information transmission mode of graphic and image language has been more and more accepted by the world, especially when combined with text, the effect will be good.

Observing and refining with lens, feeling and recording with film or photoelectric sensor, and expressing thinking with images are the most important features of photography, both in terms of tools and functions. In fact, the instrumentality or functionality of photography determines the essence of photography and the specificity of ontology language.

There is no doubt that photography, by its nature, is a visual language with scientific and technological characteristics, which is different from traditional painting. It is a tool or means characterized by recording, describing, processing, selecting, conveying and communicating visual information. It is true that with this special tool or means, we can consciously carry out so-called artistic creation, and we can also engage in photographic expression of non-artistic creation.

Written language is good at expressing profound and subtle thoughts and feelings more clearly, almost for thousands of years. The languages of the images are not exactly the same. It seems difficult for people to get accurate and specific original ideas about the creator from images. Although we can get this or that feeling from the image, it is still difficult to restore the original intention, and it is just a matter of opinion. Appreciators can only speculate, imagine and experience by their own experiences and experiences. Reading pictures is no better than reading articles. Strong emotional stimulation often hinders the direct participation of reason, and as a result, the viewer automatically gives up his own judgment. It is precisely for this reason that the necessary text descriptions, such as the title of the work, the description of the creative intention and the text introduction about the photographer's photography activities, are still indispensable in the expression of pictures.

(2) Features of photography language: photography language and painting language.

1. Historical evolution

As mentioned above, photography language originates from the historical facts of painting language. No matter from the early photography works that are very similar to painting, or from the identity of artists who are engaged in conscious photography creation, we can draw the conclusion that there are countless natural links between photography language and painting language. The original meaning of the word photography is to draw pictures with light, so drawing is its starting point. At first, because the photography technology is not advanced enough, the portrait photos taken by Daguerre are very similar to the portraits of villains painted by ordinary painters. The difference is that people generally think that photos are more realistic, just like what people see when they look in the mirror, so people also call them photography? A mirror with memory? (Daguerre's photo is made of polished silver-plated copper plate, with a smooth surface, much like a mirror), even if people are old, this side? The man in the mirror? However, when taking pictures, it always stays on the appearance, and the charm of photography can be seen (see figure 1).

When was the first golden age of photography? Elegant art photography? , also called what? Painting photography? Period. Because the painting world at that time was there? Pre-Raphael? During this period, photography is naturally full of heroic and sentimental feelings, and the materials and ideas are similar to those of painting, and most of them come from classic literary works, history and fairy tales, which cannot be separated from? Motif? With what? Prototype? . Due to the limitation of technology, creators usually use multi-bottom shooting alone, and then take the method of collage synthesis to complete the creation of more complex overall photography works (as shown in Figure 2). This way of creation still has a considerable impact on today's digital photography creation.

2. The public expression basis of visual language

As we all know, gold represents wealth, red represents violence, green represents peace, blue represents tranquility, white represents purity, and black represents mourning. All these conventional understandings are based on human civilization, and they constitute the basic framework of visual language expression and appreciation.

In the process of the formation of photographic language, there are also some regular phenomena that can be discussed through theoretical research. Some specific language symbols have the characteristics of human cognition, such as a large number of characteristic language symbols appearing in the torrent of popular culture. They don't need translation, and people can know them at a glance, such as the heart-shaped symbol representing love, the cross representing death, and the red China? Mao? Symbols, skeleton symbols representing danger, etc. Photographic language widely used in mass communication inevitably appears in a large number of photographic works and becomes a part of photographic language. Pop artist Andy? Admiral Warhol? Mao? The symbol "Dali" has been used to the extreme, and the Spanish artist Dali upgraded his beard to an artistic symbol recognized by the public and can be used independently. Real artists are always good at discovering and creatively using symbols that have the potential to become * * *.

3. Contemporary photography that pays tribute to famous paintings

Famous artists who are active in the contemporary image art world, such as Wang Qingsong, Shi Guowei, Ma Liang, Yao Lu and Ju Duoqi in China, and Taichangsen Village and Harajuku in Japan, have all turned their photography creation to imitation and misappropriation of classic paintings, making the images seem specious, ironic and self-evident, but they also have a sensitive sense of the times and a slightly painful penetrating effect.

As there are a large number of works paying tribute to classic paintings in contemporary photography, some young people who have a good foundation in painting and have received education in classical painting extract their feelings in painting through digital photography and consciously apply them to their own photography creation. Some people just extract the classical meaning of hue, some people misappropriate the picture forms in classical painting (such as vertical axis, long scroll and fan in traditional Chinese painting), some people adopt the costume modeling of classical characters, some people follow the layout structure of the original painting, and some people directly add or tamper with the original painting framework? Contemporary photography, especially contemporary commercial photography, with the advantages of digital photography technology, is unscrupulously consuming the classic elements in classical painting and gradually forming a trend in the image circle? Neoclassicism? Photography is fashionable.

(3) Features of photographic language: photographic language and musical language.

According to the general understanding, photography language and music language are irrelevant, and there seems to be no comparability between them. In fact, only artists have the most say in the universality of art. As a representative figure of modern abstract art, Kandinsky listed a brand-new art world he discovered in his masterpiece On the Spirit of Art? The association and correspondence between music image and screen image are listed one by one. Ansel, a famous American photographer? Adams, his initial ideal was to be an excellent pianist, but fate made him embark on the road of visual art and become a great photographer. Can it be said that Adams' talent for musical performance has disappeared since then? In fact, Adams really realized his musical dream in another art field, that is, the wonderful tonal structure and infinitely subtle image level changes in the black-and-white image world? With the full display of music visualization, Adams' sense of music was perfectly released in the darkroom (Figure 4). Another typical example is Ernst, a photographer who was born in Vienna, the city of music. Haas studied violin with his father in his early years, and was infatuated with poems closely related to music in his youth. However, after graduating from college, he embarked on the road of photography. Obviously, Haas' sense of music has been enriched and refined in his color photography (Figure 5). It's hard to say whether the musical sense made Haas's achievements in color photography or the wonderful musical language made the language expression of color photography, which upgraded color photography to a real art in the 1960s.

The ancients said, Poetry (music) is a talking painting, and painting is a silent poem? . As a visual expression, photography is naturally the same. When creating, we should take the sense of music as the starting point to create photography, and shoot a photographic work with a sense of music. When appreciating, we should feel the wonder of the picture according to the sense of music. Appreciating photographic works as music is often an extremely rare artistic enjoyment, leading to another world.

These two groups of experimental photography of musical images, one is the direct expression of the abstraction and generalization of musical images (Figure 6), and the other is the concrete expression of the psychological space of musical images (Figure 7). I believe that when you appreciate it, you will have your own corresponding musical feelings lingering in the photographic picture.

(4) Features of photographic language: photographic language and posture language.

The language of posture is the expression of meaning corresponding to people's actions. See and know? ,? Listen with your eyes when you listen? Refers to the most authentic language expression of behavior, not what others say, but the meaning implied in their specific and subtle actions, so deaf people can often fully understand others and the world with their eyes. Photography language naturally contains rich expressions of various body posture languages. In portrait photography, figure photography and documentary photography, the expressive force of body language will directly determine the success or failure of works creation.

(5) Features of photographic language: photographic language and natural language.

The world we live in is full of all kinds of information dissemination. In addition to the continuous dissemination of information in the human world, nature is also exchanging and communicating information all the time. Nature speaks in its own language, and we humans can decipher very little from it, but photography can often record information about nature that we humans cannot fully perceive. Four seasons change in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the scenery changes in four seasons. Nature also has its own personality and its own joys and sorrows. Photographers who take pictures with landscapes can often feel the poet-like feelings of nature. The infinite vivid and rich information transmission of nature has laid a solid foundation for the generation and deep expression of photographic language.

In a word, photography language belongs to a language expression system with the characteristics of visualization, concretization and visual expression, which combines the language characteristics of writing language and painting language. It not only develops with the progress of science and technology (every scientific and technological progress brings a new breakthrough in photographic language), but also closely revolves around the rich and subtle natural state of the subject itself, which transcends human experience and is freely generated and presented. This is a dynamic language, an open language, a growing language, a language beyond our subjective cognition.