The reading, "Every Picture Tells A Story" deals with some of the ways in which photographs can embody cultural presumptions and ideologies which often remain hidden from our awareness (and perhaps even from the awareness of the photographer who made the picture). Linda Nochlin’s article "The Imaginary Orient" demonstrates how both paintings and photographs made by western visitors to eastern regions can be read to reveal embedded attitudes of cultural superiority to the "other" while at the same time denying or effacing the presence of the observer himself. Both of these articles challenge the notion that photographs are transparent (the "referential illusion").

- paraphrased from Robert Atkins, Artspeak, New York: Abbeville, 1990

Using what you have learned from both of these articles and the discussion of these issues in class, write a three-page paper which explores the subtext of a single photograph which you believe manifests some of the problems these writers discuss. You may use images from any source except the required texts for the class. One of the history of photo texts which I’ve placed on reserve at the main library) such as Rosenblum’s "World History of Photography, monographs on the work of photographers (check out the TR section on the 5^th floor of the library), or popular sources such as magazines and newspapers. Advertising and photojournalism are valid sources for of images for this paper.

This paper requires you to brush the photograph against its own "grain" or intentions. A few guidelines:

The most interesting type of photograph to select, and from which you might learn the most, is one which disturbs you on some level which you don’t yet fully understand. Images which are so overtly propagandistic that their ideology is present "on the surface" will probably be less interesting to work with for this paper.

Looking should precede analysis for this paper. Your discussion of the "subtext" or hidden ideology of the photograph should include specific references to the image itself. The "subtext" may be embedded in the choice and placement of the subject matter, vantage point, technique, as well as the intended context for the image (art gallery, newspaper, magazine, television). Describing what you actually see in the image itself can often help to reveal how it functions ideologically.

This is not a research paper. However, depending upon the photograph selected and your ideas about it, it may be helpful or necessary to place it in the context of other images or writings with which it can be compared to contrasted.

You should include a xerox of the image at the end of your paper and indicate its source. Additionally, you must submit the entire paper, including the image, in duplicate.

The paper must be three double-spaced pages in a normal font size, with an average of 250-300 words per page. (Use the word-count feature on your word processor to check this.)