Exercise 2.7 Martin Shields part 2

Download from the OCA student site the tear sheet of the newspaper in which the Shields photograph was originally published. Read the accompanying text and answer the questions below:

Does the text relate to your initial deconstruction of the image? If so, how?

Does the text change your perception of the image? If so, how? (Open College of the Arts, 2014:37)

My response:

The text both changes my response to the image and confirms some of my initial thoughts, in particular the connotation, overall, it adds to my interpretation:

• It confirms that it is a dilapidated estate but in addition states that it is a council estate
• It was new information that it was Glasgow.

If I had to guess what article the image accompanied as the boys in football strip were central to the image I would have expected the story to centre around the boys or football:  friendship in hard times, friendship across a divide, or a hope for playing fields;. It was a surprise to find that the article is about regeneration of public housing.

My Learning:

A reminder of the power of text to anchor an image and also the power of an image to be used perhaps out of context and have its meaning misappropriated.

Reference:

Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.

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